Pre-Law

Scales of Justice

Mock Trial

In the intercollegiate mock trial competition, students role play lawyers and witnesses and are judged on their persuasiveness and ability to analyze arguments. Clark team members take LAS 038, Trial Advocacy, for credit in the fall semester. Both the fall class and the spring competition are currently taught by a practicing attorney and trial lawyer, Clark alumnus Steven C. Kennedy '88.

Clark hosted the Regional Mock Trial Tournament on Feb 25-27, 2011.

Participating colleges in the 2011 tournament included Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Clark University, Columbia University, Harvard University, College of Holy Cross, Syracuse University, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, University of New Hampshire, University of Vermont, Wellesley College and Wesleyan University.



The final team standings were:
1. Columbia A
2. UMass Amherst
3. Tufts University B
4. Tufts University A
5. Harvard University
6. Boston University
7. Columbia University B
8. University of New Hampshire

For full results of this year's trial please visit the American Mock Trial Association


Mock Trial Teams have a Strong Year in 2010


From left to right (Clark A team members at the Regional): Nick Haslam, Hattie Krakow, Calvin Choi, Sylvie Lepeltier, Kristen Bokhan, Lindsay Gemmell, Brendan Labbe, Marcus DeVito and Steve Kennedy '88.

Clark University Mock Trial team members competed at the regional tournament at Clark University.

The Clark University Intercollegiate Mock Trial Team performed well at the sub-national tournament held at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston on March 26-28, 2010. The team went 2-2 against teams from Brandeis and 1-3 against teams from Brown, giving the Clark team an overall record of 3-5. But the team's performance was much stronger than their record indicates because they lost several of the ballots by only one point. The team qualified for the Boston tournament because of their ninth place finish at the regional tournament held at Clark University on February 19-21, 2010.; The eventual winners of the Boston tournament were teams from Princeton, Tufts, Yale, Harvard, Brown, and Boston University. They will move on to the national tournament to be held in Memphis. At the tournaments, students role play attorneys and witnesses, this year in a murder trial.

Clark did receive two individual awards at the Boston sub-national tournament.; Sylvie Lepeltier, who will graduate in December of 2010, received both a Best Attorney award at the tournament and a Best Witness award.  Sylvie was the only student at the Boston tournament to win both the Best Attorney and Best Witness awards. Sylvie also won both awards at the regional tournament, and she was the only student to achieve that accomplishment at the regional tournament as well.

Clark University last hosted the New England regional tournament in 2006. Over 80 local lawyers came to campus to help judge this regional tournament in 2010.; Clark's Career Services Office took responsibility for recruiting and scheduling the judges for the tournament. The teams are coached by Steve Kennedy, a Clark alum and a full-time litigation attorney. Kennedy teaches a Trial Advocacy class in the fall semester that helps prepare students for participation on the intercollegiate mock trial teams.  The mock trial teams and the Trial Advocacy class are all part of Clark's Law and Society Program, directed by Professor Mark C. Miller. Miller noted, “We are all extremely proud of all the hard work that our mock trial students put into this endeavor.  The Boston sub-national tournament had some of the best mock trial teams in the country, and we did quite well.”

The regional tournament held at Clark University included 27 teams from 16 colleges and universities from throughout the region. The Clark team A won five ballots and lost three at the tournament. This 5-3 record meant that the team finished ninth among the 27 teams. Although the team missed by one point getting one of the eight automatic qualifying bids to the sub-national tournament to be held at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston in late March, Clark did eventually receive an at-large or open bid to that next round of tournaments in Boston. Clark's strength of schedule ranked it second in the country among teams seeking the at-large bids. In previous years, the highly successful Clark teams have attended national tournaments held in Memphis, Cincinnati, St. Petersburg, Florida, and other cities around the nation.

The Clark team A had the toughest strength of schedule of any team at the regional tournament.  Clark went 1-1 against the Dartmouth College team that eventually finished fifth at the tournament, 2-0 against the Wellesley College team that eventually finished eighth in the tournament, and 1-1 against the Tufts University team that eventually finished eleventh at the tournament. Clark's team B finished the regional tournament with a 3-5 record, losing to UMass Amherst and Colby College, while splitting ballots with Boston College.

The final team standings for this regional tournament held at Clark University are as follows (the top eight teams received automatic bids to the sub-national tournament in Boston):

  1. Boston University
  2. Harvard University team A
  3. Harvard University team B
  4. Boston College
  5. Dartmouth College
  6. College of the Holy Cross
  7. Colby College
  8. Wellesley College
  9. Clark University team A (received an at-large bid to the Boston tournament)
  10. Brown University
  11. Tufts University
  12. Boston University team B

The members of the Clark team A were Kristen Bokhan (‘10), Sylvie Lepeltier ('11), Lindsay Gemmell ('10), Hattie Krakow ('10), Calvin Choi ('12), Nick Haslam ('10), and Brendan Labbe ('13).   Members of Clark team B included Marcus DeVito ('11), Anastasia Tserkonis ('12), Matt Diamond ('12), Justin Leopold-Cohen ('13), Conor Pfeiffer (‘11), Joey Danko ('13), Mike Potiker ('13), and Justin Raphaelson ('13).