FIU Law School’s Team Reaches Semi-finals of First Virtual Bedell Mock Trial

Elise Gregg / Staff Writer

It may seem strange to spend weeks training to argue in front of a computer, but for FIU Law’s mock trial team, that’s what it took to reach the semifinals in the first virtual Bedell mock trial debate.

The team of four FIU law students only had five weeks to train for the competition held completely different from previous years due to the pandemic.

“It is the Florida Super Bowl of mock trials,” said H. Scott Fingerhut, an FIU professor of Trial Advocacy who coached the team. 

FIU law students Chandler Lefevere, Elisa Diaz, Forrest Wilson, and Natalie Zakharia began training in December for the Chester Bedell Memorial Mock Trial Competition. 

The team fell only two points short of reaching the finals however, this year’s competition was uniquely demanding because of the pandemic. 

“Anything you prepare for there’s stress, there’s pressure, there’s a lot on your shoulders to excel and be the very best that you can be,” said second-year law student Zakharia. “But at the end of the day, it was all worth it…the best part was competing together because we not only saw each other grow from beginning to end, we saw all our hard work pay off in the end.”

The Chester Bedell Memorial Mock Trial is a three day competition sponsored by the trial lawyer section of the Florida Bar in honor of trial lawyer Chester Bedell, whose law firm in Jacksonville is the oldest firm in Florida. 

The competition involves giving students a case to argue in front of a mock judge and jury. The cases can be criminal offenses or disputes between two private parties, and competitors are given a reading period shortly after Thanksgiving. From there, the team has five weeks to prepare an argument. 

“This particular case file was about a man working for a roofing company, and his company was hired to fix a roof on top of a big supermarket and the roof was a disaster area, and he ended up dying… so the lawsuit was about who is at fault,” said Fingerhut.

The competition has five rounds of debate. Unlike real courtroom cases, there are few last minute changes to cases and evidence, and there are limits to motions and arguments but most mock trials run similarly to real cases. 

“It’s a significant event that ruins our students’ winter breaks, because the day exams are over, they work on this basically every day,” said Fingerhut.

Not only do team members learn trial advocacy, they also have to adapt to being persuasive in an online environment. 

“You have to get your lighting right, you have to get your background right,” said Wilson, a second-year law student. “You have to enunciate clearly enough so that your microphone can pick it up and you have to make sure that you’re staring at one single point of light, which you don’t really make the same connection that you would if you were in person.”

Competing virtually didn’t entail the same environment and an FIU team normally has with other competitors, jurors, and judges. 

“Imagine training, and teaching advocacy this way; you’re not standing in the courtroom,” Fingerhurt said. “You haven’t really developed a sense of memory of what the room smells like, what it feels like sensing the jury to your right and the judge ahead to your left, opposing counsel behind you.” 

As intense as training and competition normally is, having to prepare and compete remotely completely changed the game for FIU’s team and their coaches.

“It’s an honor to be able to compete with the trial team,” said third-year law student Diaz. “But I think there also was a conversation that we all had with Professor Fingerhut about this is… going to be very different, it’s not going to be like the typical competition experience.”

Even with a persuasive argument and strong legal skills, competing virtually is difficult. 

“It’s about the legal mechanics and human dynamics of trying a lawsuit, and jurors are human beings…without that physical presence just imagine giving your closing argument to a computer screen, sitting alone in your room… [it’s] extremely difficult for the students to do, for any lawyer to do,” said Fingerhut.

While the team only had five weeks to prepare, the team’s coaches had to begin preparation as early on as October. 

“The coaches and the coaches who assisted us are FIU alums, they’re trial team alums,” Fingerhut said. “There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into getting the case file ready to teach it with the students.”

Fingerhut said this year the coaches got to work as soon as possible. 

“As soon as the case file comes out…my coaches and I are through it cover to cover,” Fingerhut said. “I have to be ready to teach the case file as soon as they become ready. So we had one or two, maybe three…or four hour sessions before the reading period.” 

Fingerhut added that there was a mix of students competing, with different levels of experience and knowledge. 

“Sometimes they’ve taken trial advocacy [classes] before, sometimes they haven’t; sometimes they’ve completed before, sometimes they haven’t,” said Fingerhut. 

This was the first year of competition for everyone on the team except for third year law student Chandler Lefevere. 

“I think that none of us had ever done training in this type of setting before so it not only was a completely new area that we had to learn…but we also had to learn how to adapt and take that training and be at 100 percent virtually,” Zakharia said. 

The team also lacked the support from training together in person, which was a challenge to strengthen their arguments and to connect with each other as teammates. 

“You don’t develop the same camaraderie when we’re together over winter break every day for five weeks,” said Fingerhut. 

Even for a former championship team like FIU’s, the first virtual Bedell competition required even more diligence than previous years. 

“We had to work all the harder to make sure we had winning stories, compelling stories, and that we were delivering those stories to make an impact on the jury we were trying to convince,” Lefevere said. 

Fingerhut think’s competition dynamics won’t become the norm for future Bedell mock trial competitions.

“This will probably be the only virtual one, assuming everyone gets vaccinated,” Fingerhut said. “Next January, we’ll be back in Tampa or Fort Lauderdale or Orlando or Jacksonville.” 

And, by next January, everyone from FIU’s team hopes to compete again.

“Luckily for me and Forrest, we do have the opportunity to compete again,” Zakharia said. “I think being part of the trial team, especially in this type of setting on Zoom, not only solidified a passion of mine to advocate for people and want to be in a courtroom and be a trial lawyer, it also builds your confidence.” 

Even those who can’t participate again next year said they’re glad for the opportunity they had this year.

“I unfortunately don’t have the opportunity to compete again, but I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to make this my last mock trial experience,” Lefevere said, “and if I did have the opportunity to jump into another competition, I absolutely would.” 

However, the end of the mock trial is not the end of the team’s legacy: their trophy will be displayed outside FIU’s small courtroom. 

“The four of them are part of the legacy of the FIU trial team.” Fingerhut said. 

Fingerhut said that even as young law school students, FIU’s Law School has a bright future because of them and their resiliency.

“They can help coach, they can help build the next generation of…passionate, principled advocates,” Fingerhut said. “And when you get to work with students like these, who are as pleasant as they are hard working, as they are talented, I can take a loss… but I think if you ask the four of them [they’ll] probably tell you they feel like they won more than they lost.”