Law Team competes at Skokie and Kane County Mock Trial Competitions

Gracie Tully, Graphics Editor|February 2, 2017

Law Team after Kane County competition.

In the past week, Law Team has participated in two mock trial competitions: one on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Skokie Courthouse, and one on Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Kane County Judicial Center. The York team placed third at Skokie, and won an award at Kane.

Mock trial competitions normally have at least 10 to 12 schools participating. Each school’s team participates in two trials for the case distributed by the Illinois State Bar association– one trial to play defense, and one to play the prosecution. After each trial, the presiding judge and a panel of attorneys, who play the role of a jury, give feedback to each member of each team.

At the Skokie competition on Thursday, York was the prosecution against Main West, and then defense against Niles West. In both trials, York did very well, earning third place for the whole competition.  

“I think we did really well,” said Maya Iyer, a freshman on Law Team who came to observe a varsity trial. “It was really cool to watch.”

Law Team members holding up Third Place Award at Skokie Courthouse.

After the success in Skokie, Law Team returned to court two days later for the Kane County competition. At this competition, schools had the opportunity to challenge one another, rather than be assigned their opponents. York was first challenged by St. Charles North, where they were the defense, and then were prosecution against St. Charles East.

“I thought they were very professional and I thought they were extremely well prepared,” said Mrs. Mueller, the club sponsor. “It was really exciting to see all their hard work pay off in the real life courtroom, and to see how impressed all the other adults in the room were with their performance; all the seasoned judges and attorneys were very impressed with it.”

Law Team members discussing case after first trial at Kane County competition.

The impact York’s performance had on the judges showed when they awarded senior Savanna Clements a Best Witness award.

York is set to participate in three more mock trial competitions in order to prepare for the state competition, which is on Saturday, Mar. 3, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  

“This is a very promising start to the new season, and if we continue to work hard, I know that we will be able to reach the finals at state,” said Chris Foster, a junior on Law Team. “I’m looking forward to see what the rest of this year has in store for us.”