Staff Writer
Florida Coastal School of Law recently placed a milestone in its trophy case.
A mock trial team consisting of Black Law Student Association (BLSA) members from Florida Coastal School of Law (FCSL) attended the Southern Regional Competition of the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition in Baton Rouge, La. The Southern Region was the largest in the competition, boasting 20 teams, including the University of Florida, Duke Law School, University of North Carolina and the University of Alabama. With the help of local attorneys, judges, FCSL Mock Trial Program Director Professor Annette Ritter and team coach Professor Lois Ragsdale, students Ruby Green, Adrianne Irish, Jaimee McDowell and Clarence Sydnor were able to make school history by bringing home the school’s first first-place trophy from a mock trial competition.
“It was a great experience, a little unnerving, but great,” said Clarence Sydnor, who was one of the team’s prosecutors. “We went into the competition well prepared. Through the mock trial program, professor (Annette) Ritter brings in guest judges, prosecutors and defenders to help us prepare, and they are not nice. They let us know what to expect during competition, what works and what won’t. (Professors and coaches) take us to different courtrooms in Jacksonville, so we get a feel for what they are like.”
It was this training that allowed the FCSL team not to flinch in the first round of competition.
“The opposing team made a motion to exclude our document, which was our case. The judge kicked out our evidence and that was our case,” said Sydnor. “The only reason we didn’t crumble was because professor Ritter had done that same thing to us in practice, so we were prepared to continue. We ended up winning that round.”
The same could not be said for the team’s competition in the finals.
“We were able to get their evidence kicked out and they weren’t ready for it,” said Sydnor. “They sat there in silence for about four minutes. It was like watching a team’s star quarterback twisting his ankle during the last drive of the Super Bowl.”
Sydnor was on the sidelines watching his teammates perform in the courtroom, but the feeling was the same at the defense table.
“They didn’t know how to recuperate from it,” said Jaimee McDowell, who was competing in her first mock trial competition. “From the start of our preparation, our goal was to get the evidence thrown out and we were well prepared to do that.”
Some of that preparation was done on her own time. The BLSA team was selected differently than the teams from the school’s mock trial program. FCSL Mock Trial Program Director Annette Ritter selected two members of the team and the school’s BLSA Chapter President selected two members.
Both McDowell and Ruby Green aren’t on the mock trial team, so they didn’t have the benefit of the training provided to the team’s members. They worked hard to be thoroughly prepared for the competition on their own.
“They both worked very hard independently to get themselves ready for the competition,” said Ritter. “They sat in on classes and did a lot of extra reading to get prepared.”
The team will now be one of 18 that will compete at the national competition in Boston in March.
Two other FCSL mock trial teams visited Orlando to compete in the Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition, which attracts law schools from throughout the state. The team of Matt Roepstorff, Carrie Stiefel, Brooke Fuller and Chris Warren defeated Nova, and FSU, twice, before narrowly losing to University of Florida in the finals. They were coached by Coastal graduates Lindsay Tygart-Havice and Fraz Ahmed and Ritter.
“We knew it was going to be close,” said Roepstorff. “To come up a little bit short when we were so close was a let down, but we looked back and realized that we were the second best mock trial team in the state. We are looking forward to building off this success.”
Approaching its 15th year in existence, faculty and students at FCSL are proud of the early successes the school has enjoyed.
“No one could have expected such a dramatic first year,” said Ritter. “Out of six competitions so far, the mock trial team has a win, two second places and a fourth in a large national, invitation only competition. The recognition of our teams on a state and national stage raises the recognition and prestige of the entire school, especially since we are a relatively young school.”
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