December 10, 2014: Over 80 NYC teachers met at the New York County Lawyer’s Association to receive the 2014-2015 Mock Trial case and learn about the issues. The Justice Resource Center (JRC), in partnership with the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), provides high school students the opportunity to participate in a citywide Mock Trial competition, with the winning team moving on to the NYS finals. Teams of 6-12 students compete at least twice in a multiple-elimination round tournament. A team can be from a designated course, or an after school program. The preliminary rounds will begin during the last week of February. The top two NYC teams will advance to the State Finals in Albany in May 2015.
Schools are assigned a lawyer-coach, who works with the assigned teacher-coach from the school. Teachers are afforded the opportunity to participate in a professional development and informational session provided by the JRC. The case, written by the NYSBA’s Law, Youth and Citizenship committee is provided to each school. All rounds take place after school at various borough courthouses with lawyers presiding as judges. The final round is held at the United States Federal Court with a federal judge presiding. All students are invited to observe the final round of the competition, followed by an awards ceremony and celebration for all participating students. If you are an attorney interested in coaching a Mock Trial team, please contact Debra Lesser at dlesser@schools.nyc.gov.
For more information and the 2014-2015 case, please see our Mock Trial page.
Many thanks to the NYSBA staff, Honorable Price, Lou Klieger and John Tsavaris for making the event possible!