STREET LAW INTERNATIONAL MOCK TRIAL & DINNER BANQUET

MOCK TRIAL; SATURDAY APRIL 11

The“Street Law International” culminating mock trial for the class will be on Saturday, April 11th. The Sacramento High School students will perform as lawyers in the mock trial.  They will be coached and taught Trial Advocacy skills by the McGeorge law student instructors (and me), along with local attorney volunteers who assist in the class on a pro bono basis. The mock trial will take place in either a federal or state courtroom with an actual judge presiding.  The parents of the high school students are invited to watch their children perform in the mock trial. It is a great learning event for the high school students and the law students who work diligently to prepare them. Typically, the law students, the high school teacher, and I play the role of the witnesses in the mock trial.

This year, in addition to us playing these witness roles, I have arranged for a Sacramento Kings basketball player and a Sacramento Monarchs player to serve as the main witnesses in the mock trial. The case will involve a dispute when foreign basketball players leave their Italian teams in order to play for teams in the US; the players and the US teams are then sued by the Italian team owners. The case will combine trial advocacy with some international, global issues. The high school students will also learn how to use courtroom technology to question witnesses and to present their cases.

DINNER BANQUET; SUNDAY APRIL 12

The next day, Sunday, April 12th, we will have the awards banquet where the law students choose and award the best advocates in several categories. The awards dinner will be in the banquet room at ARCO Arena. The students and their guests will arrive around 4:30 pm and the awards dinner will go from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.  We are planning for a total of 250 guests.  After the banquet, all 250 guests will sit together in a special block of seats to watch the Kings play. The game will start at 7:00 pm. It will be the final home game for the Kings (assuming the Kings do not make it to the playoffs this year which seems clear at this point). The 12 McGeorge law students, the 32 Sacramento High School students, will then go down to the floor to watch the Kings and their opponents warm up before the game. They will then be instructed to form lines and give “high fives” to the players as they are introduced just before the start of the game. They may be involved in some half-time activities as well.

The cost will be $40 per ticket which will include the awards banquet dinner and the game afterwards.