.MONDAY

February6, 2006

LAW L

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StanfordMockTrial.takessecondplace"I

.Two Stariford teams to competeat regionals,mayface eachother

JENNY ALLENSTAFF WRITER

The biggest competition yet, the Third Annu-al Bay Area Mock Trial Invitational took placeon campustpis weekend as Stanford LawSchool's four-person team fell short of its UCLAopponents. Third place was secured by Golden

",;~, ALVINCHOW/ TheStanfordDailyFirst-year 1d'\;Vstudent Benjamin Ratner, of theStanford Mock Trialteam, cross-examines awitness, at the Third Annual Bay Area Mock TrialInvitational this weekend.

Gate Law School; UC-Berkeley's Boalt Hall andHastings Law Schools also competed. The topthree teams won engraved gavels and the UCLAteam took home 10,000 Westlaw Rewardspoints, to be redeemed for merchandise.

Each judge singled out individuals for BestAttorney Awards, who received 1,000 WestlawRewards points each. Four Stanford studentsrecognized as Best Attorneys - Rae Woods,Nancy Glass, Jeremy ~resser and Lindsey Powell- were ranked first by every judge in theirrounds.

The two-day invitational involved rounds ofcompetitions dUring which future litigators de-livered opening and closing statements, arguedobjections and motions and examined witnessesusing the.fact pattern of the upcoming Associa-tion of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) Na-tional Student Advocacy Competition. Stanfordwill soon be sending two teams to theATLA Re-gional Championship in Santa Monica.

Throughout the country, 224 teams competedat 14 ATLA regionals, vying to win a slot at na-tionals. This year's case involves a field mechan-ic who was injured when the hoist he was operat-ing broke, causing a 1.5.ton load to fall to theground. In 2005, a team from Stanford LawSchool won the regional championship title; theywent on to compete at the ATLA Student Advo-cacy..Nati0ual. Championship in West PaInT,Beach,Fla., where it was recognized as one ofthetop 15 Mock Trial teams in the nation.

"We are sending some very talented studentsto defend Stanford's title this year," said Presi-dent of the Stanford Mock Trial Program andsecond-year law student Rae Woods, captain ofone of the two Stanford teams attending theATLA tournament. "I'm especially excited tosee such superstar first-year students in the mix.Stanford is unique from other law schools be-

Please see MOCK,page 9

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N CAMPUS

GendercommitteescreatedILaw schoolinvestigatessexualmisconductthrough committees

ByAMIT ARORASENIOR STAFFWRITER

Facing allegations of sexual harassment andmisconduct, Stanford Law School announced thecreation of four committees to investigate genderrelations on campus last week. Comprised of both

I students and faculty, the committees will examip.e",-,admissions,career services, classroom participa-

tion and student life.With input from Law School administration, the

faculty, the Law Association and the Women ofStanford Law, Law School Dean Larry Kramerpromoted the idea of committees and expressed hissupport for student discourse in a letter to the LawSchool student body.He described the necessity forsuch discUssionsand referred to allegations of sex-ual harassment involving conduct between stu-dents.

"Some serious charges were brought to us of

Please see GENDER,page 9

MOCK:Continued from front pagei

cause it allows first-year students tocompete interscholastically - andthe program is better for it."

The team captain of the otherqualifying Stanford team, Dave. Thompson, a second-year student,said he hopes to defend the team's- title earned at last year's tourna-ment.

"We've been putting so muchwork into this, so many late nights inclassrooms, that It's an amazing pay-off to get to represent Stanford atthe next level of competition,"'Thompson said. "The team didn'tbelieve me when I told them that

they would be spending every ni~htIworking on this case, but the hardwork has all paid off"

Thompson also said the twoStanford teams hope to face offagainst each other at regionals.

"It would be the Mock Trial

~equivalent of the Williams sisters~eeting in the Wimbledon finals,"ihe said.

Woods said he believes that theBay Area Mock Trial Invitationalprovided an excellent opportunityfor the competitors to exercise theirtrial advocacy skills.

"The Invitational gave us all aI chance to apply the legal knowledgewe're learning in the classroom in afun, interactive, entertaining set-ting,"Woods said. "But, most impor-Itantly, it gave us a chance to cometogether as a team - to examinethe case problem, to explore differ-ent theories, and to support eachother as we presented our case. Thatteamwork and the relationships I'vebuilt during my Mock Trial years arewhat really makes the whole experi-ence worthwhile."

Woods was also very apprecia-tive of Stanford Law Dean LarryKramer's support of the Mock TrialProgram as well as the devotion oflover 40 local attorneys, judges andmock trail coaches who acted asguest judges at the invitational.

~ Many felt that the student-runevent was a tremendous success.

"The tournament has gotten big-ger'each year, and this year's tourna-ment ran very smoothly, through thehard work of the program's execu-tive board members and the cooper-ation of the law school administra-tion," noted Mock Tri~ Director ofExternal Relations and second-yearlaw student Lindsey Powell.

Team Captain and second-yearJaw student Scott Reents describedthe competition as "very intense."

"Mock trial requires that 1°uhave total mastery of a set of verycomplicated and ambiguous facts,develop a compelling legal strategyand execute that strategy whileducking objections and cross-exam-inations from a hostile, competentopposing team," Reents said. "It'ssort of like trying to put together amodel airplane while riding a bikethrough an obstacle course pursuedby people who are trying to knock ryou off, all the while a crowd of peo-ple is judging your performance. In ""

other words, it's a lot of fun!"First-year Chrystal Tindell said

she was very impressed by her fel-low competitors. I

"I think the thing that astoundedme most was the level of sportsman-ship shownby all the teams - I can I

only hope that legal professionalswork in the same way," Tindell said. ."Also, to put it succinctly, it was anexhausting and exhilarating experi-ence - a mock trial is a three-houradrenaline rush."

Several of the participants notedthat they joined the Mock Trail Pro-gram in order to better prepare forthe unpredictability of the court-room.

"The judges at the Invitationalwere practicing attorneys, many ofwhom go to trial regularly, so theirfeedback was really valuable," saidsecond-year Stanford participant.Jason Fan. "I joined Mock Trial toget on my feet in a trial setting. Thisexperience will help me decidewhether I want to focus on litigationin the future."

Second-year law student OlgaKuskova, Mock Trail vice presidentof competition and training, saidthat the Invitational was "fantastic Ipreparation for real world trialwork."

"The artificialities of this beingan academic exercise are kept to aminimum, the opportunity to bescored and judged by practitionersis incredibly useful and ultimately,it's just so much fun," Kuskova said."The opportunity to spend time inthe well of a real courtroom, objec-tion fights, creative argumentation,even playing witnesses is wonderful,and I enjoy every moment of it." I

Founded in 2003, the StanfordMock Trial Program participates inthe annual American Bar Associa-tion National Mock Trial Tourna-ment as well as the Texas YoungLawyers Association InvitationalNational TrialCompetition Region- I

al Tournament, which may result inone of two Stanford teams advanc-ing to the national finals in Dallas, I

Tex. this spring. For more informa-tion about Mock Trial, "visithttp://www.stanfordmocktrial.com...