Post date: April 2, 2002 — 10 a.m.
The Harvard Law School Mock Trial Team has won the Association of Trial Lawyers of America ‘s national trial advocacy tournament held in Chicago from March 21 to March 25. The victory over 225 teams from more than 120 different law schools is the first national championship for the Harvard Mock Trial Team. The team of Matthew Whitley, Cecilia Dickson, Rick Su, and Rex Lee finished a perfect 11-0, winning 33 out of 35 judges in the process.
“This team has made a remarkable accomplishment, especially since Harvard has only been competing in the ATLA tournament for three years,” noted team captain Matthew Whitley. “The best part of our victory is that all four team members worked hard, pulled their weight, and were able to make immediate adjustments when rulings were not going our way–this was a total team effort.”
The Harvard Mock Trial Team qualified for the ATLA national tournament by winning a regional competition held in Boston in early March. Harvard and the 13 other regional winners then progressed to the national finals in Chicago. After competing in three preliminary trials, the top eight teams at the national tournament advanced to single-elimination rounds. Harvard, seeded first entering the elimination rounds, defeated Drake University Law School in the quarterfinals, Texas Tech University Law School in the semifinals, and Pepperdine Law School in the finals.
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