Mock Trial: O V E R

Well, mock trial is over. We just finished one and a half days of competition, but niether of our two teams advanced to semi-finals. I did my best and got positive feedback from the judges. The good thing about this kind of experience is that it will be typical in the real world of practicing law. You'll do your best to represent a client and a jury may go against you for odd reasons. So goes life.

Mock trial is a GREAT experience. If you're interested in litigation or if you just want to improve your public speaking skills, I highly recommend this activity in law school. It's been fun and I've learned things that will help me in real practice.

My coach has been amazing, and I'm glad to know her and my teammates. We will return to Fort Worth proud that we did our best, even though we won't be bringing home any trophies.

Semester's Activities

So what have I done this semester besides study?

Mock Trial
I'm competing on the mock trial team for the National Trial Competition. We compete in regionals in Lubbock and if we make it to the next level, we compete in Austin. The competition is next week. We practice on Fridays and Saturdays, pretty much all day. This is a tremendous commitment of time, but it is the best thing I've done in law school. My teammates are really awesome. This is my third and last competition. Mock trial has allowed me to apply all the substantive things I've learned. I could not imagine law school without this trial experience.

Academic TA
I'm an academic TA this year. It's really interesting to watch the OneL students after having gone through the process myself. Lest I forget how distressed I was when I did my first open research memo, I have the privilege of coaching other students through the process while reminding them of the importance of keeping up with all their other classes. None of them run the other way when they see me coming down the hall, so hopefully I provide some kind of help and hope that they can make it through.

BLSA
I'm active in our local Black Law Student's Association (BLSA). I'm supposed to be the historian, but we had an awesome event last night and I forgot to take pictures! How crazy is that? But at least we have the memories. I came up with the idea and called it the Spring Into Success BLSA Bash. One of our professors, Everett Chambers, graciously hosted the event. He's the director of our academic support program. I wanted the first year students, especially, to get to know him early so they can avoid academic problems. I'm sure some seeds of success were planted.

BLSA also had a panel to celebrate MLK day last month and I was one of the panelist. I can't remember everything I said, but people came up to me afterwards and said my remarks were good. Generally, I said we must wake up in order to realize the dream. We have to wake up and see the injustices around us and wake up to apply the solutions. I encouraged the audience that each of them have a call to fulfill in righting wrongs as advocates. We have some more events coming up this month to celebrate black history. I'm sure they'll be enlightening and fun.

Peace and blessings, Renea