Mock Trial is a competitive speech and debate activity focused on trial advocacy. Students simulate the roles of both attorneys and witnesses in criminal or civil trials against teams from other institutions. Students develop critical thinking and public speaking skills, as well as a knowledge of legal practices and procedures. Mock Trial boasts the most competitive field of any undergraduate activity; thousands of students from more than seven hundred teams compete each year.

Mock Trial teaches invaluable skills: speaking with conviction, critical thinking, arguing, and persuading. It takes these skills to a whole new level. Whether you want to be a trial attorney or not, the skills learned in Mock Trial apply to any career, helping you excel in job interviews, pitches, and persuading others. Members from various fields have benefited from Mock Trial, including criminal justice, finance, engineering, and psychology. And above all, Mock Trial is fun. It brings satisfaction when hard work pays off in epic rounds and fosters camaraderie among team members, leading to lifelong friendships.

We’ll be honest—we practice a lot. Theories on how to achieve Mock Trial success abound, but just as in life, hard work is an essential component and a major aspect of being a member of GW Mock Trial. Typically, a team will practice for about 10 – 15 hours per week in the Fall, but by the “post-season” in January, we will expect each member to dedicate 25+ hours per week.

Absolutely! Our members are very active on campus. Our members are heavily involved in Greek Life, the Student Association, and countless other student organizations. It’s all up to you—if you’re good at time management, you can easily balance GW Mock Trial with other activities.

Anywhere from 100 – 120 people try out for GW Mock Trial each year. Out of that number, 8 – 10 are drafted into the program. For example, in the 2022 – 2023 draft, 124 people tried out, and 10 were drafted.

No. We have many members who specialize as only an attorney or as only a witness, and we have open spots for roles of every kind on all three of our teams. However, most members do end up competing as an attorney and as a witness at some point in their GW Mock Trial career, and many are often surprised at how much fun it can be to perform as one or the other. So, we do hope that you’ll be willing to try new things!

Mock Trial is a competitive speech and debate activity with a significant acting component. Many of our most successful members have experience acting and are interested in theatre and drama. Autumn Reeser, star of the television series, The O.C., won the Intercollegiate Mock Trial All-American Award in 1999 for her stellar performance as a competitor at UCLA.

Nope! Many of our most talented members have come to GW without any prior public speaking experience whatsoever. We also typically don’t give priority to prospective members who are already knowledgeable about the law or courtroom procedure. While that sort of thing might be nice, we pride ourselves on teaching our members everything they need to know about trial advocacy.

Potential. We aren’t so much looking for people who are already good at Mock Trial as we are looking for people who learn quickly and have a good attitude. It’s easy for us to teach you how to write a direct examination or how to impeach a witness. It’s a lot harder to teach you how to appear confident, calm, and collected, how to speak with presence, poise, and force, or how to be charismatic, engaging, and entertaining. These are the qualities that we want to see in your tryout. As you may know, the merits of an argument are often less important than the passion with which it is made. You have ten minutes to impress us with your personality, enthusiasm, and presentation.