By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

More than 200 students from 29 area high schools will converge on the SUNY Buffalo Law School Feb. 4 in Amherst for the first round of the 2012 High School Mock Trial Tournament, presented by the Bar Association of Erie County.

The students will act as the attorneys and witnesses in a hypothetical assault case. They will present their evidence to a panel of volunteer judges from the Western New York legal community.

Among those scheduled to judge the mock trials are Federal Magistrate Jeremiah McCarthy; New York State Supreme Court Justices Tracey Bannister, Henry Nowak and John O'Donnell; and acting Supreme Court Justice Timothy Walker.

"Mock trial tournaments allow young people to gain valuable real-world skills as they act out courtroom dramas," said Arthur Russ Jr., president of the Bar Association. "We are grateful to all the local teachers, attorneys and judges who volunteer their time to coach the students and judge the competition."

Among the volunteers is Craig Bucki, an attorney with Phillips Lytle LLP and director of this year's tournament. As a former mock trial participant and state champion when he was in high school, Bucki said there is immeasurable value in the program for students.

"We will have many students who, as a result of this experience, will learn more not only about courtroom procedure but also about criminal law in the State of New York," he said.

There is nothing mock about the trial for the participants, he added, and the judges who volunteer to hear the cases treat each presentation with the seriousness of a real-life trial.

"Students need to be familiar with how to phrase a question properly, how to introduce only relevant evidence and they need to be familiar with the hearsay rule," Bucki said. "They come to these trials needing much of the same skills they would need as a practicing attorney."

Although the case is fictional, he said the competitive juices are quite real for participants.

"These students are competing to win, so they treat the case incredibly seriously," he said. 

The Mock Trial event begins at 9 a.m., Feb. 4 in John Lord O'Brian Hall on the UB North campus in Amherst. It will continue Feb. 11, beginning at 9 a.m. Among the 29 schools participating is Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart, which took home the title last year.