“Judge” Jennifer Kwapisz gives instructions to “attorney” Jack Mundy of St. Patrick, Smithtown, as he questions Brittany Shepherd of St. Peter of Alcantara. TLIC photos/Mary Iapalucci
Syosset — Briefcase-toting attorneys huddled with witnesses, while paralegals made notes and suggestions at the last-minute strategy sessions. The busy scene wasn’t a court house, but the halls of Our Lady of Mercy Academy (OLMA) here, where students from five Catholic elementary schools participated in a mock trial competition.
In mock trial, students take on courtroom roles and argue a fictional case based on real issues and using actual legal procedures. Each team had an attorney, a paralegal and a witness and had to be prepared to argue the assigned case from either side. This was the eighth competition that the OLMA mock trial team has hosted for junior-high-age students. The five participating schools, St. Brigid, Westbury; St. Patrick, Smithtown; St. Patrick, Bay Shore; St. Peter of Alcantara, Port Washington and St. Ignatius Loyola, Hicksville, fielded 14 teams.
Our Lady of Mercy’s mock trial team hosts this event twice a year to help younger students learn about the law and mock trials. Meredith Kurz, an OLMA senior and team captain said she “likes to get people involved in mock trial. It’s not well known in junior high school.” She added that being involved in mock trial, “gives direction, with good examples, good role models.”
Coming from a family of lawyers, including her mother who served as a judge for this tournament, Kurz plans to pursue a career in law herself. As a freshman, the mock trial team caught her interest. “It fosters certain skills which are beneficial to everyone, like public speaking and leadership,” she said.
Leadership opportunities abound on the team, according to its moderator, Neil Theisen, who jokes that he just has to show up to make sure the lights are on. Students are given responsibility for certain parts of a project or a case, and they take their roles seriously.
“These girls do everything themselves,” he explained. For this tournament, students came up with the idea for the case, researched and wrote it, and then baked the cookies and hung the signs around the school so guests could find their “courtrooms.”
Queens-based attorney Stephen Bonfa, who serves as advisor to the OLMA team and a judge for the mock trials, concurred. “These guys do all the work,” he said. When they are going into a competition, “I let them develop their arguments, and I go over different strategies. For the most part, they are right on. I just come for fine tuning.”
“What’s unique about (the OLMA competition) is all the judges are professionals,” said Bonfa. “Usually, in college-level tournaments, they only have professional judges in late rounds.” This year a team of volunteer judges included several experienced lawyers and judges. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice judged the final round.
One judge, who filled in when one of the lawyers had to cancel, is not yet an attorney, but she has a special connection to the OLMA tournament. Jennifer Kwapisz, currently a sophomore at Fordham University in the Bronx, ran the first junior high competition when she was a member of the OLMA team.
“When I was in elementary school, there were no activities pertaining to law. I was co-captain (of the OLMA team) in junior year when the idea came up to host a junior high tournament,” said Kwapisz, who believes strongly in the benefits of mock trial.
Members of the OLMA mock trial team, from left, Mary Johnson, Erin Brogan, Emily Tompsett, Casey James and Kristen Glass, take a break between rounds of the junior high tournament.
“Mock trial is an introduction to the law,” she said. “Through mock trials you develop skills — analytical skills, public speaking, and leadership.”
Her team at Fordham just hosted its first tournament for high school students. “The Mercy team came. It was a really good experience for them,” she said.
Kwapisz is considering a law career with a focus on intellectual property or computer crime so the case the students argued at this competition was of great interest to her. It involved a fan-made Web page about a fictional TV show, “Villains.” The company that owned the show had ordered that the pages be removed from “myvideo.com” saying the clips from the show and parodies on the pages infringed on their copyright. The college student who created the site as a tribute to his favorite show wanted it restored to the Web.
The case was inspired by “my frustrations over trying to find TV shows on the Internet,” explained OLMA student Casey James, who coordinated the event along with co-chair Catherine Wilshusen. James had participated in the OLMA mock trial when she was in elementary school.
Each trial consisted of opening statements, the presentation of a witness for each side, cross-examination, and closing statements. Attorneys could make objections, submit items into evidence and ask redirect questions, as they would in a real court.
 Each team participated in three rounds, where they were scored by the judges on a number of criteria, including their knowledge of the case, the strength of their presentations, and their adherence to courtroom procedure.
At the end of the case, the judges provided detailed feedback on each aspect of the case, to help the students improve.
The third round is a semi-final to determine the two teams that will go into the final, but every team participates so only the judges know which are the semi-finalists.
This year, teams from St. Patrick, Smithtown, and St. Ignatius argued the final round, with the decision in favor of St. Patrick. Another team from St. Patrick’s and two teams from St. Peter of Alcantara shared a three-way tie for third place.
Attorney Mark Hanlon serves as an advisor to the St. Peter of Alcantara team, which had captured first place at the first seven OLMA tournaments and also participates in an annual mock trial event at St. John’s University.
He praised the mock trial competition as a great learning experience that helps develop analytical thinking. “They read the problem (the case developed by the hosts) and analyze it. They have to figure out the issue, translate it into a real problem. That’s the essence of good lawyering and good thinking,” he said.
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