By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

If you've witnessed a Mock Trial - be it at the high school or college level - you know firsthand the preparation and skills required to argue a case before a judge in open court. If you haven't, say participants in the Erie County Mock Trial Competition, you are missing a chance to see one of the purest examples of education put to practical use.

While supporters express frustration that Mock Trial doesn't get the recognition, funding and support that many of the athletic programs at area high schools enjoy, they see it as an invaluable tool for nurturing future lawyers and business professionals of all types.

Colleen Mattrey is an attorney with Damon & Morey LLP and a 2004 graduate of the University at Buffalo Law School, where she was a two-year member of the Mock Trial team. She has served as the lawyer-coach of the Clarence High School team since 2005 and is currently an assistant coach for the UB program.

"Competing in Mock Trial gives you a whole new perspective on what you are learning, not only the law, but about public speaking, critical thinking, confidence," Mattrey says. "All of these things that go into not only being a lawyer, but being a professional."

Mattrey sees the Mock Trial program as every bit as demanding as a regular class at Clarence and says her students put in a tremendous amount of hours on their case, working evenings and Saturdays throughout the school year.

"Not only that, but I think it is much more beneficial to them because they are constantly thinking and applying what they learn," she says. "A good number of them go on to do college Mock Trial and get involved in moot court. It is amazing to me how many of them follow our program and who come back and want to get involved."

One such student who plans to go on to compete in Mock Trial at the college level is Emily Rutter. The 2009 Clarence graduate and three-time member of the Mock Trial team is heading to Harvard in the fall.

"My sister, who is four years older than me, was on the team and I remembered going to the competitions and seeing everyone in action and I knew it was something I wanted to do," Rutter says. After three years on the team, the 18-year-old says the experience was invaluable. "I think it's prepared me to pursue any kind of law I want, but it has also prepared me to grow as a person in terms of public speaking, work ethic and just being able to think on your feet and talk on your feet."

Western New York law firms are sprinkled with lawyers who are graduates of Mock Trial programs on both the high school and college level. Among them is Phillips Lytle LLP associate Craig Bucki. As a freshman at Canisius High School in 1997, Bucki was a member of the team that won the New York State Mock Trial Championship. He continued on with Mock Trial as a student at Yale University and later at Columbia Law School and credits the programs with developing his skills as a litigator at an early age.

"Mock Trial is a great opportunity for a young person to feel like part of a team," Bucki says. "And while the common goal was succeeding in the competitions, what they always impressed upon us is that what was important was learning about the law, learning about litigation and to learn a little bit about what it is like to go into a courtroom and have to think on your feet and be able to react appropriately."

His work on the 2003 Yale team earned Bucki the All-American Witness Award at the National Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament in 2003, an award that today hangs in his office at Phillips Lytle.

"My time in Mock Trial gave me that exposure and let me see that a career in litigation was something that was appealing to me," he says.

If one were to stumble into a Mock Trial in progress, you may think you have walked in on a practice for the drama club. Not so, says Mattrey.

"When people think of Mock Trial as theater, as acting or being very dramatic, no, its about confidence," she says.

Still, Mattrey admits there is a bit of theatrics in every trial - mock or otherwise.

"It's about poise and presentation, specifically when it comes to practicing law," she says. "You are putting on a show for the jury and for these kids who are going to end up in a courtroom or a boardroom, that can only benefit them."

Brian Menczynski anticipates benefitting from his experiences in Mock Trial when the time comes. A teammate of Bucki's on the Canisius High School squad, Menczynski is a third-year law student at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich.

"My Mock Trial experience will help me once I start to practice law, since I will be accustomed to speaking in front of others in a courtroom scenario," he says. "You can't put a price on that kind of experience when it comes to being a lawyer."

The Erie County Mock Trial Program has 45 participating schools in the annual competition, up from just six schools when the program began in 1982. William Shipengrover was a teacher in Clarence at the time and was one of two teachers who founded the Clarence program. Some 27 years later, long-since retired from teaching, Shipengrover is still active in the program. He says it has evolved through the years and offers a humorous story to illustrate that.

"Now we take 12 to 18 students on the team, but on that first team, we had six," he said. "The first trial we went to, a girl had the flu and we didn't have an attorney, so we had to go over to her house and get her, just tell her to ‘Hop in. You'll be sick for a while, but you'll be all right.' "

Shipengrover, who estimates more than 30 of his former Mock Trial students have gone on to become practicing attorneys, believes they got their foundation in the Mock Trial program.

"I consider this probably the top academic team you can be involved with in this high school. This gives the students an incredible academic challenge," he said. "Writing is extremely important. You have to be very creative, and although we can teach them, a lot of this is innate to them and it is so critical to their success."

That's why the students are treated as professionals throughout the competition, said Erie County Bar Association President Bob Convissar, whose organization sponsors and coordinates the annual competition.

"This program requires the students to conduct themselves as attorneys and they are handling issues that attorneys face every day," he said. "The students are judged by the standards of lawyers, they are held to the same rules of evidence and these kids are really swimming in deep water."

The bottom line, says Shipengrover, is that these programs raise the educational bar for those who participate.

"If you talk to students who have gone on to law school, they tell you, they go two years into law school before they learn anything new. That's the kind of depth they go into in Mock Trial now. It's incredibly complex."