This Sunday, the George Washington Mock Trial Board will host the quarter and semi-finals of the Cohen and Cohen Mock Trial Competition. Sixteen second and third-year law students will be facing off for a chance to compete in front of a federal district court judge, Judge William H. Pauley of the Southern District of New York, in the final round on Wednesday, November 11.

These 16 advocates advanced from an original pool of 68 students, all of whom competed several weekends ago at both the law school and the D.C. Superior Courthouse.  This is the largest Cohen and Cohen Competition to date (for example last year's competition boasted 44 participants), and was the largest skills competition hosted at GW this fall. Board President David Myers speculates that the reason for such a large turnout may have been "because many people who opted for Van Vleck last year, with Justice Scalia judging the finals, decided to compete in Cohen and Cohen this year." Myers also noted that "in general, this year's 2L class seemed to be very enthusiastic about Mock Trial -- more so than previous classes," which also may have led to such high participation.

Despite the high volume of participants and some early morning setbacks, the first round of the competition proved successful.  Denise Turner, Vice President of Internal Competitions, describes the beginning of the day as "a nightmare," as a DC Bike Event shut down many of the roads surrounding the courthouse. Because many judges and participants did not know of the closures beforehand, many arrived late (or not at all), heightening the stress of an already nerve-wracking experience, and pushing back the start of their busy day.

However, Myers notes that once everybody arrived, things ran very smoothly. Each team of two law students had the opportunity to argue their case as both defense and plaintiffs counsel, disputing whether a college should be held liable for hosting a carnival at which a student was hit in the face by a ball thrown by an overserved colleague. Of course, there were many more intricacies, twists, and subplots to the problem, which was written by Turner last summer.  Turner states that she got the idea for the problem from a personal injury law firm. This was the second year in a row that the Board has written its own problem for an internal competition.

It is quite fitting that the problem was based on a personal injury dispute, as the fall competition is hosted by a personal injury law firm, Cohen and Cohen. Wayne Cohen, one of the founding partners of the firm explains how the firm's relationship with GW was formed. "We began sponsoring the competition to help give students an opportunity to improve their trial skills through competition.  Having taught at the law school since 1993, it was a great fit!"

That goal has certainly paid dividends, as observers raved about the level of skill displayed at this year's competition. According to Myers, "all of the competitors conducted their rounds in a civil and professional manner. We saw plenty of compliments from judges to that effect on score sheets." And Cohen agrees, noting that "every year the law students seem to get better and better.  Last year I walked out of the event thinking I'd like to hire all of the competitors to handle cases at our firm."

Of course, not everyone was pleased with the results of the day.  Turner explains that there is always a sticky issue when students judge other students, leading to some competitors questioning their judges' knowledge of the rules of evidence, and some judges questioning their own qualifications. However, with such large numbers of competitors, student judges seem to be a necessary evil.  As Myers, stated in extending his appreciation to the members of the Mock Trial Board, "I of course want to thank all of the members of the Mock Trial Board who judged, since (along with our practitioner judges from the community), we could not hold a competition like this without their efforts."

Still, after such skilled advocacy in the first round, judges and competitors alike are looking forward to this weekend to see how the competition plays out.