Mock trial no laughing matter

UNM has its first competitive undergraduate mock trial team thanks to two comparative politics students.

In last winter’s comparative politics intercession class, senior Hannah Russell and junior Terri Harwood hatched the idea of a mock trial team, which recently registered with the American Mock Trial Association to begin regional competition by February 2012.

“Terri essentially brought it up to me, and I loved the idea, since I hadn’t heard of any mock trial teams on campus,” Russel said. “We talked about the fact that UNM had a quite successful speech and debate team a few years back, but that it had died off.”

Russel and Harwood found an existing mock trial club at UNM, but it is not competitive.

They said the purpose of their team is to create a competitive forum to prepare students for law school and law practice. After realizing their similar motivations, Russell and Harwood chartered their mock trial team and acquired funding from ASUNM.

Political science professor Michael Rocca sponsors the team, and lawyer Cindy Aragon coaches them. Russel and Harwood said the team currently has 10 members, but hopes to gain more.

Harwood said she hopes to send two teams to the American Mock Trial Association Regional Tournament in February, which is the qualifying tournament for the national competition, which takes place in March.

“Hannah and I are both really excited about this team, and we feel really confident about qualifying for nationals,” Harwood said. “Cindy Aragon is a wonderful lawyer a great person, and she will be a very helpful and reliable coach for us with lots of connections in this profession.”

The team’s first meeting takes place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Satellite Coffee in the SUB.

“Through mock trial I hope to fine-tune my public speaking skills and hopefully get to the point where it doesn’t bother me at all to speak in public,” Russell said.