Capitol City Here We Come!

Written by Anthony Sam, Wendy Fawcett and Jayson Serrano

This year’s civil case is Addison v. Peyton, a personal injury action arising from a car accident.  The plaintiff, Taylor Addison, is alleging that the defendant, Jordan Peyton, struck his car while it was parked, causing him to spill a cup of hot coffee, which caused injuries to Addison’s hand and damage to his vehicle.  Addison claims to have seen a silver Mercedes that matched the description of the defendant’s car fleeing the scene.  As the police investigated, they found the defendant pulling her damaged car into her driveway minutes after the accident.  There was a distinct smell of alcohol coming from Peyton so she is subjected to field sobriety tests, which she failed.

As a result of this incident, Peyton was criminally charged with DUI and felony hit and run but was found not guilty by a jury on both charges. Peyton claims she was not on the street where Addison was parked and had nothing to do with the collision. Peyton also claims the damage to her own car was caused days earlier when she hit a pylon in a parking garage.  

 The Capitol City Team consists of Stephanie Greenberg and Wendy Fawcett as plaintiff's counsel and Jayson Serrano and Mark Malbrough as defense counsel.  Erika Hamer is the team alternate.   

Besides their attorney roles the students have witness roles to perfect, too. Jayson will play Taylor Addison, the plaintiff. Mark will play Officer Baldwin who investigated the scene, found the defendant, administered the field sobriety tests and later arrested the defendant.  

Stephanie is playing the role of Jordan Peyton, the defendant. Wendy will play defense witness Riley Cameron, who was Jordan Peyton's college intern and was at the happy hour where both Cameron and Peyton drank beer. Cameron was in the car when the collision allegedly occurred because Peyton was driving her home.  

This competition focuses on use of technology in the courtroom. Competitors are encouraged to utilize “cutting edge” technology to help bring the case to life.  So the Capitol City team has been practicing  with the ELMO digital projector, will use PowerPoint during closing arguments, and may also admit into evidence an audio recording (the 911 call) using high-tech courtroom equipment.

Coaching this year’s team to success are Kelly Heaney and Josh Wolkomir, both JMLS grads and practicing attorneys.  

The competition will be held in Washington D.C., at Washington College of Law from March 19-21.  Let’s wish Capitol City the best of luck as they head to D.C.

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Coach's Perspective:
Kelly Heaney and Josh Wolkomir

Written by Mary Scholl

“We’re looking for students that are motivated – your success at competition is proportional to the time you prepare ahead of time . . .”

Kelly Heaney and Josh Wolkomir are this year’s coaches for the Capitol City Challenge trial team Competition in Washington, D.C. the weekend of March 19, 2010.   Kelly and Josh were kind enough to take some time out of their busy schedules to give me an inside look at a coach’s perspective of trial competitions.  These two JMLS alumni have similar coaching styles, and are able to work well together.  Since Kelly and Josh recently became engaged, it’s no surprise that they also make a great coaching duo.

Kelly and Josh have a unique perspective as trial team coaches because of their experience competing in trial team competitions while at JMLS.  These experiences gave them an excellent perspective while coaching the ABA Labor and Employment Law Competition this past fall. Additionally, this will be Kelly’s second year coaching the Capitol City Challenge. 

Choosing a team is a difficult task for any coach.  When viewing tryout videos, Kelly says, “we’re basically looking for students who appear on the video to be motivated to compete, have great presentation skills, and have taken the time to prepare for their tryout.  I’m not as concerned about having a well-crafted argument because of the limited amount of time students are given to prepare, however, it is important that you understand the basics of preparing an examination and an argument.” 

Kelly doesn’t mind if students are using notes during a tryout, as long as they are not dependent on them.  Josh, however, prefers that students are off notes completely and have prepared a more polished argument for the tryout.  Both agree, however, that the video tryouts have a limited use – “you can only get presentation style [from the video], that being said, presentation and style are important, confidence level is 90% of the game in these competitions…”

A sure way to not be selected according to the coaches, is to show up “really unprepared or to come across as not understanding the problem.  If your closing argument sounds like an opening statement or if you lack the basic presentation skills, it’s likely that you’ll not deliver well in the competition.” Kelly and Josh also agree that a student’s resume is minimally helpful in choosing a team because “you might have student who isn’t necessarily a stellar student in the top of their class, but they make a great trial advocate -- book smarts aren’t necessarily indicative of what kind of trial attorney you can be.”  However, if “you’re doing very poorly in school it could show a lack of commitment in general so we try to stay away from that,” says Josh. 

The key to having a successful team, Josh says, is based on “the amount of work that you put in, not just during practice, but on an individual basis – basically your success is proportional to how much you prepare, all the work you do ahead of time directly affects how you do in trial.  It’s like real life, the more you put in to your trial prep, the more you get out of it.” 

The most difficult part of coaching for Josh and Kelly is trying to balance their own work schedules and scheduling practices with the team members.  The coaching couple also agrees that watching the trial competition itself is always difficult because “you get evaluators that you become frustrated with when you don’t agree with their rulings, and sometimes we disagree with their understanding of the evidence, so that makes it hard to watch.”  

At the end of day, Josh and Kelly understand their team members’ frustrations with the competition process.  “We know how subjective the judging process is.  We also understand what the students are going through so we try to adjust to make sure that no one is getting too stressed out before the competition, we want everyone to be in a good place, because we know how they feel. We were there at one time, too.”

Josh and Kelly and the rest of the Capitol City Challenge team are excited about the competition coming up March 19th.  Best of luck to the coaches and team when they make the trip to our nation’s capitol!  

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Classes Good To Take For ADR

Written by Patty Ross

John Marshall offers many classes geared toward developing skills in the area of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Some of those classes are Alternative Means of Dispute Resolution, Client Interviewing and Counseling, Advanced Mediation, and Transnational Negotiation and Mediation. These classes often give students an opportunity not only to learn the different effective styles of ADR, but also to try their hand at counseling a client, negotiating a settlement or mediating a dispute. After the students prepare these demonstrations they are usually critiqued and given advice on how to improve those skills.

If given the opportunity, it is a tremendous learning experience to be a teaching assistant for these classes. Helping a professor in this way can give students an opportunity to assist in creating some of the problems used in the demonstrations and get a chance to give some advice of your own.

Another great way to improve one’s ADR skills at John Marshall is the Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution Center’s Judicial Externship program. Even an externship geared toward trial observation may still involves a great deal of alternative dispute resolution. I had an externship with the Honorable James P. Flannery in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County and primarily observed jury trials. However, I had the opportunity to sit in on pre-trial conferences during which parties negotiated settlements and used all the skills taught in ADR classes at John Marshall. There are so many great opportunities at John Marshall to improve your ADR skills through classes and externship programs.

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1L Mock Trial Heating Up

Written by Steve Tschiggfrie

Kidnapping is awesome. Well, a mock trial competition about a kidnapping is pretty awesome anyway.

The 1L Mock Trial problem was released last week and the teams are busy getting ready for the competition on March 26th. This year's case involves a woman who is found tied up in a storage closet inside the hotel where she works. The defendant is her ex-boyfriend who may (or may not) have some good reasons to kidnap his ex and ask for ransom money. There are many ways to try the case, and that's the beauty of trial ad competitions. While theory is certainly important, in the end, it's all about performance, delivery, and communicating a clear message.

Right now there are 30 teams signed up which means 120 students will compete and every team will compete in 2 rounds on the 26th. The top 5 teams will be recognized along with 5 individual advocates. The individual awards are: Best Overall Advocate, Best Opening Statement, Best Direct Examination, Best Cross Examination, and Best Closing Argument. All of those who receive either a team award or an individual award will be on the fast track to compete on a trial team, potentially being eligible one semester earlier that the rest of their peers.

For the competitors: While there are certainly advantages to performing well, take it easy and enjoy the experience. Remember, the other team is probably just as nervous as you are! This is a good format to get your feet wet and get a feel of what it's like to put on a trial. Just prepare well over the next few weeks and then go have some fun on the 26th. Best of luck everyone!

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Brandon DeBerry

Written by Christina Morrison

Trial Advocacy Honors Board Position: Faculty Liaison

Q.  Where did you grow up?
A.  Columbus, Ohio.  

Q. Where did you go to undergrad and what degree did you earn?
A. The University of Akron and Political Science.  

Q. Have you always wanted to go to law school? 
A. Ever since I was 13 or so. I loved to argue and loved Law & Order even more.  

Q. What responsibilities do you have in your board position as Faculty Liaison?
A. Generally, I keep the faculty and staff up to date with what is going on with the Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution Honors Board and Council. It is my goal to get the faculty more involved with the students and our competitions.  

Q. Do you know what area of law you would like to practice?
A. I want to be a litigator! I want to focus on either transactional litigation or white-collar defense work.  

Q. Have you been on any trial teams while at John Marshall?
A. Yes, I have been on two. Last spring, I was on the AAJ team and we came in second at regionals; and this fall I was on the NTAC team that also advanced.

Q. How do you prepare for your trial team tryout?
A. I start, of course, with preparing a good cross. There is such a short amount of time for the actual tryout that I try my best to show off different styles and to be diverse. I want to show the coaches that I could play a good prosecutor or plaintiff’s attorney or a good defense attorney. I try to do the same with my closing argument. I try to tell a good story while at the same time trying to convey a subtle sense of passion.  

Q. What do you like best about being on a trial team?
A. Competing. There is nothing better than knowing that you have done all that can be done in terms of preparation and then getting up in front of that jury to advocate. It’s a rush.  

Q. Do you work while attending law school?
A.  Currently, no. Last semester, though, I was an extern at the United States Attorney's Office. It was the highlight of my law school experience thus far.  

Q. What would be your “dream job” after you finish law school?
A. Honestly, I would love to be in-house counsel for a fashion brand like Ralph Lauren.  

Q. If you decided not to practice law, what would you do?
A.  Great question! I'm not exactly sure but I'd probably pursue something in the arts – possibly something that would involve a lot of traveling.  

Q. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
A. Portugal. Although I've never been, I've done enough research to know that it’s an awesome country!  

Q. What advice would you give students who want to try out for trial teams?
A. Be really prepared! Don't be afraid to ask someone who has been on a team for advice or to listen to your closing argument. Really try to perfect the craft and memorize! Memorize because it will show the coaches that you are serious about being on a trial team and that you will put in the work to be successful.  

Q. As you approach graduation, what is your favorite memory from law school?
A. I'm not just saying this because I am part of the trial ad program, but being on trial teams was the most rewarding.

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