Fordham LC Mock Trial is a competitive speech team at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus that travels nationwide to challenge the country’s top schools in the courtroom. Coast to coast, Fordham LC Mock Trial travels more, practices more, and wins more than any other club on campus.
Making our Case
Every year, the American Mock Trial Association releases a new case problem for every college to compete with. As part of working on the team, we take the witness statements, depositions, interrogations, and evidence provided in that case and turn them into two fully-fledged presentations. We then present that case against other schools at competitions.
Competing
Each year, our Mock Trial team travels to schools such as Harvard, Tufts, and Yale to compete in their invitational tournaments. There, we present our cases against other schools in front of practicing attorneys who judge the rounds. Whichever team’s performance scores more points ends up with that judge’s ballot, and eventually a trophy to show for it.
Winning
WE WIN. Team awards, individual awards, and even sportsmanship awards. When the hard work pays off, we’re rewarded with some shiny hardware. You can find most, but not all of our awards, on the 5th floor of Leon Lowenstein.
When the hard work pays off!
First Place at ORCS! (2022)
Second place at Regionals, a bid to ORCS, and several All-Regional awards! (2023)
Second place at ORCS, a bid to Nationals, and an All-National award! (2023)
First and Third place at UMNUMB! (2024)
Second Place at ORCs, a bid to Nationals, and several All-National Awards! (2024)
Honorable Mention at Nationals, and an All-American Award! (2024)
Witnesses
Some students portray witnesses on the stand for the attorneys to direct and cross-examine. They act as characters ranging from accomplished investigators to distraught parents accused of murdering their own child.
Parker Wise ('26) performing a cross-examination.
Chris Antypas ('26) and Jacob Purdue ('27) during a direct examination.
Nick Penn ('26) presenting a demonstrative during direct examination.
Attorneys
Other students take on the role of an attorney. Every round, three attorneys represent the team, each in charge of one direct, one cross-examination, and objections. They also give an opening and closing statement for their respective sides of the case.
Aysegul Yumusak ('24) giving the closing argument.
Ashuta Date ('27) conducting a direct-examination
Lydia Williams ('25) cross-examining a witness.