Attorney Advisors Must Guide Students Under Mock Trial Rules

Attorney advisors participating in the mock trial competition are required to spend a minimum of ten hours preparing their teams. These guidelines, which emphasize a cooperative approach between students, teacher coaches, and legal professionals, are designed to ensure the educational value of the mock trial tournament.

Attorneys Must Support Students Without Doing Their Work

To foster an effective learning environment, the association instructs attorneys to avoid dominating the preparation process. Attorneys are discouraged from using complex “legalese” that might stifle student discussion or create an appearance of talking down to participants. Instead, the advisor’s role is to serve as a constructive observer, critic, and teacher who listens to, suggests, and demonstrates techniques to the team.

The rules explicitly prohibit attorneys from performing the students’ work. Under the Code of Ethical Conduct, advisors are barred from drafting statements or questions for students to read or perform verbatim. Doing so is viewed as detrimental to the students’ long-term education, even if it might enhance short-term performance.

Tournament Rules Simplify Federal Evidence and Preparation Requirements

The competition operates under a modified version of the Federal Rules of Evidence, simplified specifically for the tournament. Key procedural requirements include:

• Advisors must spend at least ten hours preparing their teams.
• The initial session should focus on explaining trial procedures, answering questions about trial practice, and discussing general case strategies.
• Subsequent sessions are to center on developing questioning techniques for student attorneys and testimony skills for witnesses.
• Participants are strictly prohibited from contradicting the provided “witness statement” sheets or introducing evidence outside of the official case packet.

Tournament procedures further specify that each witness may undergo direct, redirect, cross, and recross examination.