by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
When criminal justice professor Glenn Coffey took over as coach of the University of North Florida’s mock trial team, he had a simple goal. He didn’t want his students to act like lawyers, he wanted them to think like lawyers.
So while other teams approached the competition like a play to be performed, memorizing scripts, learning fake accents and even making costumes, Coffey’s team learned the fine art of improvisation. The approach carried the team to one of its best finishes. Competing against a crowded field of 48 teams, including legal powerhouses like Yale and the University of Virginia, the UNF team took 8th place at the national tournament in St. Petersburg.
Law schools compete in a different category, but many of the undergrads competing against the UNF team were being groomed for spots in the nation’s best law schools.
“When we showed up, the other teams would ask, ‘Where’s the University of North Florida?” said David Thompson, a senior criminal justice student who gave the team’s opening arguments. “But they know where we are now, because we beat them. We take pride in knowing we put UNF on the map.”
Coffey took over the reins leading the team in September. He was determined to instill in them the improvisational style he learned working as an assistant district attorney after getting his law degree from George Mason.
“It was absolutely a reflection of my experience,” said Coffee. “I never had much time to get ready for cases. Sometimes I’d get them handed to me on my way into the courtroom.”
The mock trial competition tests the teams’ ability to present evidence, prepare and examine witnesses and give testimony. The eight-person teams each feature three attorneys, three witnesses and two alternates. All the teams present the same case until they reach the national tournament. Still, the UNF team had plenty of opportunities to showcase their versatility.
After presenting the same case throughout regional competition, the team had less than two weeks to prepare a new case for national competition. Even those plans went awry when two team members, an attorney and a witness, got stuck in traffic on their way to the competition.
“We had about 15 minutes to find a new plaintiff and a new attorney, and you know what? We won,” said Kristen DiFrancesco, another attorney and the team’s closing-argument specialist. “That’s the real world. You have to be able to roll with the punches.”