Professor Cary Bricker oversees McGeorge’s Mock Trial Competition Program and has driven the teams to new heights. US News ranks the Trial Advocacy program #7 nationally, an improvement from #15 last year. Following a slew of outstanding performances over the past several months, Professor Bricker had this to say:

“I want to report some terrific results in different trial advocacy arenas by several of our McGeorge students. Focusing first on our Mock Trial teams, they continue to display exceptional advocacy in competition, following an unprecedented fall season where we were finalists in the inaugural “Battle of the Experts” invitational at Drexel and champions in the National Civil Trial Competition at Loyola Marymount. In late January, McGeorge sent two two-person teams to the National Trial Competition regionals, both coached by Leland Washington and Jason Schaff. The team of David Anguiano and Chelsea Givens won all three preliminary rounds and their semi-final round. Though they ultimately lost to Berkeley in the finals it was in an extremely close split vote. The second team of Simone Leighty and Allison Weider fought valiantly as well and advanced to the semi-finals.

Two weeks ago in the American Association for Justice regionals (AAJ), our team comprised of Lauren Orozco, Davis Adams, Sam Hibbs and Toni Linarez, coached by Teal Ericson and Jesse Saucedo,  advanced to the semi-final round, losing there to the ultimate champions, UC Berkeley. Our second team comprised of Hayley Graves, Robert Fleming, Melanie Eiges and Ashley DeGuzman, coached by Heather Phillips and Ashley Pane, swept their first round but did not advance to the semi-finals.

On another front, in early February Stacie Jackson and Kevin Mighetto from the McGeorge Federal Defender clinic won a complete acquittal for their client before Federal Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney. They were supervised by Federal Public Defender Linda Allison. Their client was found not guilty of the separate crimes of willful destruction of property and reckless driving. What makes this win so impressive (other than the fact that they tried the case against a seasoned Assistant United States Attorney) is that they successfully cross-examined four government witnesses and put on a defense case consisting of the accused, his boss and an expert. The judge found our student-lawyers to be zealous, persuasive and ethical.”

Congratulations to all who participated and represented McGeorge at these competitions! Past members of the Mock Trial program and Federal Defender Clinic have gone on to lead highly successful careers in both public- and private-sector practice, and this year’s teams will assuredly be no exception.

For anyone interested in joining the Mock Trial Competition Team, more information is available here.