By Stephy Mahoney | Reporter
Baylor Undergraduate Mock Trial is a student organization designed to help pre-law students gain experience as they advocate in fictional court cases while competing against other universities.
BUMT President and Little Rock, Ark., senior Anthony Hailey has been with the organization for the past four years and will graduate in May.
According to Hailey, BUMT has three different teams and 30 members in the organization.
“We go through a tryout process with specific aspects to it,” Hailey said. “We have to do an impromptu speech, a memorized speech and then memorize a person’s affidavit, where we get asked random questions about that person and try to play that character. It’s about gauging how you would be as a witness or an attorney.”
The tryout process is intended to help students determine which role they would be best suited for and how they could best contribute to the team.
“All of fall semester is what we call our invitational season,” Hailey said. “We are mainly gaining experience by going to regional tournaments.”
The team participated in the American Mock Trial Association Invitational on Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hailey said this opportunity helped them grow and gain experience against teams like UCLA and other top 10 schools nationwide.
“It’s a big-time commitment because we have to practice, make our materials and organize,” Hailey said. “We aren’t just separate people trying to compete on our own. We have to be a team to create a coherent case theory.”
According to Hailey, preparation time is key to forming a strong and cohesive team.
“We don’t have coaches, so it’s all on us to run the program,” Hailey said. “A lot of programs across the country do have coaches helping them write their material or giving them direction. I think that’s one of the things that makes us stand out here at Baylor in terms of mock trial. We create everything ourselves — without the influence of coaches telling us how or what to do.”
According to Hailey, when the team seeks advice, they email individuals whose expertise best matches the issue at hand.
BUMT Vice President and Nashville, Tenn., senior Gabrielle White explained the structure of daily practices and what is expected at each session.
“Typically, each practice will focus on a different element of the case,” White said. “We usually have a practice developing a case theory, another going through directs and then we have people object as well as cross-examinations.”
White said they work on running everything, polishing the materials to ensure they are ready to be presented at their competitions.
According to White, while the entire fall semester is an invitational season, nearly all of the spring semester is a competitive season for the team.
“Following invitational season, every school is assigned a regional. Baylor is fortunate enough to host a regional, so we will actually be here in February,” White said.
BUMT Secretary and Plano sophomore Shriya Vidhyaprakash discussed the types of cases assigned each year.
“We get a case from the National Mock Trial Association every year. It’s the one case that everyone competing around the nation uses,” Vidhyaprakash said. “Every year, it alternates between a criminal and a civil case.”
