You may have heard talk around and seen the Mock Trial club’s amazing success at Clinton this year. Whether your friend is a member and puts everything into the club, or you saw their table at the club fair. Mock Trial combines the seriousness of planning out a trial with the fun of prosecuting or defending a witness in court. 

The club’s new leaders, Elliott Finn, Olivia Panton, and Mazin Ismail have been pushing the club to perform even better than before. 

Mock Trial recently attended their first official trial of the school year against LaGuardia High School, winning the trial by verdict, but ultimately losing in points. Their Vice President, Olivia Panton shared, “We were all upset that we didn’t win by points, but it was still an amazing experience for all of us. We worked so hard for the trial and stayed up late working on examinations and statements. We…constantly collaborated with others in order to be successful!” 

After this experience, they held another practice trial within a few weeks, demonstrating the drive, resilience and determination of this club. 

The club gains mentorship from lawyers distributed across various schools in the DOE system. They are given two lawyers who were a great help to the club in their competitions, learning about law, and understanding what it takes to be a lawyer. The mentors foster a learning environment where, yes, of course the kids are learning from the adults, but the adults are also learning from the kids whom they are instructing.

Mock Trial prides itself in honing the creative thinking, public speaking, and teamwork skills of each and every one of its members. While almost everything is memorized and learned beforehand, there is creative thinking involved in planning out the witness questioning, the witness’s backstory, etc.