Law Cluster Notes and MENTOR Roll Call

Thousands of students, teachers, lawyers and judges engage in law-related education and mentoring activities during the school year. The following stories and examples are typical of their work together in preparing the next generation for citizenship and leadership. The Law Cluster Notes and MENTOR Roll Call, are a continuing update of the activities in New York City in civics and law-related education activities administered through the Justice Resource Center.

BRONX SCIENCE
Attorneys in the New York office of law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP enjoyed yet another rewarding year in their roles as advisors and mentors to the Bronx High School of Science mock trial team.  Akin Gump has participated since the late 1990s in the New York State Bar Association mock trial program, which is administered in New York City by the Justice Resource Center.
      The Bronx Science trial team meets weekly during the mock trial season at Akin Gump’s midtown Manhattan offices, where the students pack into conference rooms and feast on burger and fries, while learning how to conduct direct and cross examinations, deliver opening and closing statements, and master the hearsay rules and other rules of evidence.  Every year, the team devotes a few practice sessions to “film study,” during which the students hone their trial skills by watching and then re-enacting classic court scenes from such Hollywood favorites as “My Cousin Vinny” and “The Rainmaker.”  This past year, the students also studied the Worldcom trial.  Other highlights of each season include a dress rehearsal at the federal courthouse before a Southern District judge.
      At the season’s conclusion, as a reward for their dedication and hard work, the Bronx Science team and its attorney-advisors/mentors celebrate with a trip to Yankee stadium, with all the hotdogs, peanuts and ice cream that a student could ever want.  For many of the students, it is their first baseball game and an incredibly memorable event.
      In the end, the mock trial team experience proves to be an invaluable one for students and attorneys alike.  For the students, it opens their eyes to opportunities in the legal field, and many go on to participate in law-related summer jobs and legal internships.  This past year, Akin Gump sponsored one team member in the Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program; as part of that program, the student worked for the summer in Akin Gump’s litigation department before heading to college in the fall.  In past summers, students have worked at local district attorneys’ offices, and one student worked for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.
      For the attorney-advisors/mentors at Akin Gump, the opportunity to provide students with hands-on opportunities to further their understanding of the law, court procedures and our legal system is a highly satisfying and thoroughly rewarding one.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, whose associates have been mentoring students from William Cullen Bryant High School (Queens) in the JRC’s MENTOR Moot Court Competition since 1986, decided this year to go one step further: to create a Trial Advocacy Scholarship for one outstanding student participant to attend the New York City Trial Advocacy Institute’s Mock Trial Program. This three-week summer program, held at Fordham Law School, teaches students how to analyze and conduct the essential aspects of trials.
      The scholarship recipient, 11th-grader Stephanie Cordero, was chosen by C&P associates Tracy Horton, John Kim, Robin Schafer and Paul Tanck, all of whom were MENTOR coaches this past year. They reviewed all the scholarship applications and made the selection based on each student’s application, as well as on their participation in the preparation stages and actual performance during the Competition. They were guided in this process by MENTOR partner John Nyhan.
      Chadbourne expects that Ms. Cordero will use her newly acquired training and sharpened skills to lead and inspire the 2005 Moot Court Team when she returns to Bryant as a senior in September.

LOUIS D. BRANDEIS
Students from Louis D. Brandeis High School once again grew in both knowledge and skill through their participation in the MENTOR Moot Court and New York State Mock Trial programs. During the 2004-2005 school year, mentoring attorney Barbara Reid of Schulte, Roth and Zabel LLP generously devoted hours of her time to helping students prepare for competition. Along with teacher-coach Valerie Wald, Ms. Reid helped students master arcane details of law and policy, as well as instructing them on appropriate courtroom demeanor. The students, most of whom were new to the competitions, impressed onlookers with their performances.
      A small but enthusiastic group of students from Louis D. Brandeis High School participated in the Office of Court Administration’s American Jury Initiative Project at New York Supreme Court on May 5, 2005. Teacher Valerie Wald prepared the students for the program, and accompanied them to the courthouse. During the program, Brandeis students learned much about how the jury system works, and eagerly volunteered to answer questions during the Town Hall meeting. Students took away from the Project both information to share with their classmates, and miniature judge’s gavels that they later used during mock trial enactments.

FLUSHING
Last year associates from Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP mentored more than 15 students from Flushing HS in the MENTOR Moot Court competition and the  New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) Mock Trial program, administered by the Justice Resource Center. The students diligently prepared for both competitions, dedicating countless hours to a study of the materials, developing their strategies and perfecting their arguments. This dedication paid off handsomely for the students, as they advanced further in the mock trial competition than any Flushing High School team before them.   Even though the accomplishments were outstanding, perhaps more rewarding for attorneys at the firm were the individual relationships the students built with the associate attorneys. The associates developed strong mentoring relationships with all of the students. This was evident at the last session with the students, when they asked the associates questions about college, law school and being a lawyer. Several of them asked if they could call to talk about their goals and aspirations in the months to come, even though the competitions were at an end.
      Associates at the firm helped one student expand his mock trial experience by identifying, with the help of Debra Lesser, a summer mock trial program run by the New York State Bar Association. While at the camp, the student kept in touch with the lawyers at the firm and sent an E-mail thanking the attorneys for “helping me take advantage of this opportunity.” He continued, “I will be bringing back [everything I learned] to our team next year.”
      The students also had a profound impact on the attorneys at the firm. According to one of the mentor-associates, “working with exuberant, dedicated, intelligent and diligent students made the experience not only an enjoyable one, but was the highlight of the pro bono projects I’ve worked on. I’m looking forward to next year!”
    

HERBERT H. LEHMAN
On Thursday, December 2, 2004, the Lehman students were victorious in the final competition, arguing before federal judges to become the 2004 New York City MENTOR Moot Court Champions. The victory was the culmination of a collaboration among our students, teachers and MENTOR lawyers.
For a number of years, a team of attorneys from the law firm of Clifford, Chance, LLP have served as pro bono mentors for students at Herbert H. Lehman HS located in the Bronx. The lawyers work with the students to prepare them for the Moot Court and Mock Trial competitions.
      In preparation for the Moot Court, each week the students visited the Clifford Chance offices and met with attorneys to perfect their oral advocacy skills. Preparation began in September when the group of students, accompanied by their teacher Ms. Gail Peters, received a copy of the MENTOR moot court problem prepared by the Fordham Law School Moot Court Board. Preparation continued each week with students preparing outlines, briefing cases, and practicing their oral arguments. Through the preliminary rounds, as the students consistently placed on the top of the field of 46 New York City public high school teams, the possibility of winning the competition began to seem like a reality.
      The students performed remarkably throughout the competition and were nothing short of exceptional in the finals. For the students, and the lawyers, this win represented their collective hard work and dedication.

JAMES MADISON
The year proved to be one of the most exciting for the students of the Law Institute of James Madison.  The Mock Trial Team coached by teacher Olga Perakis and the lawyers of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft LLP, William Natbony and Michael Hazy, placed first in the New York City tournament and went on to Albany.  It was an extraordinary educational experience for all the students involved.  The school has been working with the law firm for more than twenty years and the students have benefited in many ways from the association.  Last year, 2003-4 term, the MENTOR Moot Court team, coached by Sonia Lerner, Law Institute Coordinator, and William Natbony,. and other Cadwalader attorneys, won the New York City championship for the third time in the history of the competition.. 
   The students also participated in the “We The People” competition and went on to the semi-finals in the New York State competition.  The students have been in the semi-finals at the state level for the past five years and were New York City champions in 2002.
   This past year the Law Institute held its annual Murder Mystery Weekend in December at the Nevele Resort in the Catskills and had a grand time trying to solve a “mob” related crime. The students bonded with one another and will have wonderful memories of their time together.  The Law students were selected to participate in the American Jury Initiative Project Law Day activity and attended a program at the State Supreme Court on May 5. The program was filmed by the American Bar Association for an interactive video that will be distributed to the educational community.  We were one of six schools chosen to attend.  We look forward to a propitious year in the upcoming terms.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
“Moot Court, moot what?”  The students of Eleanor Roosevelt High School never heard of the program perhaps because ERHS is a new school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  The school opened in September 2002, under the direction of the principal, Susan Elliot, to offer students an academically challenging, thoughtful and intellectual experience.  In September 2004 Danielle Tuminaro, a Moot Court Coach of 4 years, joined the staff of ERHS.  The first meeting of the Law Team was a success but the motivated students realized that hard work and dedication was needed.
      To prepare the students for the Moot Court competition, ERHS was paired with JAMS, The Resolution Experts.  “JAMS mediators and arbitrators are Resolution Experts who resolve some of the nation’s largest, most complex and contentious disputes.”  Michael Young directed his staff to assist ERHS students to pursue their goals.  Kimberly Taylor organized the often bi-weekly visits she made to ERHS with other mediators and lawyers. One such mediator was Vivien Shelanski, who along with Ms. Taylor devoted their time to helping ERHS students understand the complex system of the Appellate Court, issues of legal standing, and the establishment clause.  This was not an easy endeavor for the students had great interest and some knowledge in the law but no real opportunities to discuss and debate it.  Ms. Taylor and Ms. Shelanski demonstrated to the students that the law was an exciting field but it required a lot of hard work and most of all it required team work. 
ERHS students worked together rigorously in the month that they are given to prepare for the competition by researching various Supreme Court decisions, organizing prepared statements, and preparing to answer questions from the judges.  The students often stayed hours after school and worked weekends at JAMS, where Mr. Young, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Shelanski donated their time to prepare the students.  ERHS students were impressed with JAMS’ dedication to them, but JAMS was equally impressed by their hard work, devotion and skills.  In the end their work paid off and ERHS advanced to Round Two, where they placed tenth in all of New York City.  Ms. Elliot, Ms. Tuminaro, ERHS staff and students and JAMS were extremely proud of the ERHS Law Team.