Occidental’s Mock Trial team placed seventh out of 28 at the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) Regional Tournament Feb. 28-March 1. They advanced to the Open Round Championship Series (ORCS) held on March 21-22, marking the first time the team has gone further than regionals in its three-year history.
Clay Carson* (senior) said Mock Trial is a simulated legal proceeding where teams consisting of six to eight members prepare statements, three as attorneys and three as witnesses, for both sides of a fictional case created by the AMTA each year.
Carson said he likes being a witness captain because he is practiced in the role and is a good mentor for others on the team.
“I’ve been a witness the past couple of years,” Carson said. “In that position, you learn the affidavit of a fake character, and you’re expected to know that like it’s you. Then you get asked questions by one attorney from your side that tries to make you look good […] and by an attorney from the other side that tries to either question your credibility or bring in evidence that’s unfavorable to you.”
Carson said the team recently went to UCLA to compete in regionals, which consisted of four three-hour rounds where they competed against UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Oxnard College and Arizona State University.
“In each round there are two ballots, one for each judge, and all the scores for the tournament add up to eight […] we won six,” Carson said. “It’s a chance to get to learn why we’re interested in doing this and an opportunity to meet people who are interested in similar things.”
Carson said the top six placing teams earn a bid to go to the second stage of the tournament, ORCS, and that Occidental’s team advanced because another school had to drop one of their competing teams.
“[Our] team that went to ORCS didn’t make it past that, but that’s still the furthest [we’ve gone] so we were all really happy,” Carson said.
Senior Captain Aadya Nayak (junior) said the Mock Trial program was founded three years ago by Madalyn Palay ’25, who is now their coach. Nayak said she is a founding member and that making it to ORCS was an unprecedented and important moment for the program.
“Our opponents were teams like UC Berkeley, UCLA, Arizona State […] [who] have a huge number of members, attorneys tutoring them and the money to go to more invitationals,” Nayak said. “While the numbers show a different story, the history and legacy show this was an incredible achievement.”
Junior Captain Elise Kim (sophomore) said she did not expect the team to make it past regionals but she knew the team worked hard.
“This is our third year of Mock Trial, we’re still learning the ropes and the senior captain went to study abroad, but we were putting in at least ten-plus hours a week, especially as regionals got closer,” Kim said. “I knew that even against the top teams like UCLA, USC, Stanford, Berkeley, we were putting in as much work as they were. I think it was just a matter of a bit of luck, but also a lot of grit, a lot of time being spent [on] the activity we all love.”
Kim said the team took on 12 new members, which helped them to practice full-length rounds during the regular season, outside of invitationals.
“I would say having two teams really was a game changer for regionals this year because […] we were able to do so many scrimmages against our B-team,” Kim said. “Invitationals are lower-stake competitions where you […] get to practice your materials more. It’s not official, you don’t get a ranking, but we try to make it a point to go to at least two so that all our members can practice at least once.”
Leah Rosenfeld (sophomore) said the team was surprised to hear they qualified to go to ORCS.
“Regionals was really fun, I think our team spent a lot of time working towards being more competitive this year,” Rosenfeld said. “After [the third round], we thought we were totally done, but after we got our ballots back we were all so excited and surprised, especially for such a young program.”
Rosenfeld said getting to ORCS was a good experience that will serve to help the team polish their skills for future competitions by preparing new teammates. Rosenfeld said she hopes the momentum is maintained and that there will be a continued increase in membership for the Mock Trial team.
“Even though we weren’t the most competitive team there, now we know what it’s like to be there and we can prepare our team, tell them what to expect and the strategies to get there again,” Rosenfeld said. “I’m hopeful, no, certain that our program will go to ORCS again […] I think a big goal of ours is to keep people wanting to be part of the club, to love doing it and commit a lot of time to practicing and doing well in the future.”
*Clay Carson is a former writer for The Occidental Newspaper.
Contact Miriam Arenal at arenal@oxy.edu
