Championship Mock Trial: The Guide for Students and Coaches

1. Introduction
2. Building Your Case
3. Performance
4. Opening Statement
5. Direct Examination
6. Cross Examination: Attorneys
7. Cross Examination: Witnesses
8. Closing Argument
9. Before the Judges Arrive
10. Pretrial Matters
11. Pretrial Arguments
12. Team Scores
13. Other Roles
14. Objections
15. Rules of Evidence
16. General Tournament Tips
17. Advice for Specific Competitions
18. Competing Virtually
19. Coaching

Hon. David Nelmark graduated first in his class from Drake University, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees from the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Journalism and Mass Communication. After earning a perfect score on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), he enrolled at Stanford Law School where he served on Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif (top 10 percent of the class).

After clerking for the Honorable Michael J. Melloy on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, he worked in private practice in Des Moines,

Iowa, at the firms of Belin McCormick and Gislason & Hunter. His broad litigation practice resulted in significant jury verdicts representing both plaintiffs and defendants. He was elected as a shareholder in both firms and as President of the Polk County Bar Association. In July 2019, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds appointed him as a District Court Judge. Very few people have devoted more years of their life to Mock Trial than Judge Nelmark. He is so deep into the activity that when his wife’s pregnancy was announced on social media, the first comment on the post was “I assume the name will be gender neutral.” (If you’re new to Mock Trial, that joke will make sense by the end of the book.)

The nation’s first Middle School Mock Trial tournament occurred in Iowa in 1984. Judge Nelmark started competing in that program in 1988. As a high school competitor, he helped coach a middle school team. While in college, he helped coach a high school team. Prior to law school, he was the head coach of the Drake University Mock Trial program, which had two teams ranked in the top 25 nationally. He co-founded the Stanford Law School Mock Trial team and was a competitor and coach on the team, which qualified for a national championship tournament in its second year of existence.

In addition to competing and coaching, Judge Nelmark has been involved in multiple aspects of tournament administration. He was on the Board of Directors of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) and also served as its Tabulation Director. He hosted two AMTA National Championship Tournaments in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. In 2010, Judge Nelmark became the first former competitor to be elected as President of AMTA. In 2014, he became the youngest recipient of AMTA’s Neal Smith Award, which recognized his contributions to legal education. He also had the distinction of being the youngest AMTA President until his record was broken by . . . Justin Bernstein.

Justin Bernstein is a professor and the director of trial advocacy at UCLA School of Law. He is a former president of the American Mock Trial Association and, in 2014, became the youngest person inducted into its Coaches Hall of Fame, at age 33. He is the only coach who has won national championships at the high school, college, and law school levels.

Professor Bernstein grew up in San Diego. After earning a perfect score on the SAT, he enrolled at UC Berkeley and joined the Mock Trial team. He earned three All-American Attorney Awards, the highest accolade available to collegiate competitors. At New York University School of Law, he was the first student in school history to win the fall and spring closing argument competitions. He also coached NYU’s undergraduate team to its first appearance at the National Championship Tournament— and, eventually, its first national title.

After law school, Professor Bernstein worked for global law firms— O’Melveny & Myers and Haynes and Boone—where he represented Fortune 500 companies in large, sometimes high-profile, lawsuits. While practicing law, he taught at the University of California, Irvine, for nine years and coached its undergraduate team to back-to-back #1 national rankings.

Professor Bernstein has consulted with dozens of High School Mock Trial teams across the country. More than half the schools that hired him to assist with preparing for the Empire competitions went on to win a national or world championship.

Professor Bernstein has written more than 20 Mock Trial cases and hosted more than 30 Mock Trial competitions. He created Gladiator and Trial by Combat (the first one-on-one Mock Trial tournaments in high school and college history, respectively), the Beach Party tournament (the first bracket style competition in college Mock Trial history), and The Verdict (the first jury trial competition in law school history).

Professor Bernstein’s law school teams have won all three of the most prestigious national tournaments: Tournament of Champions, the National Trial Competition, and the Student Trial Advocacy Competition. In 2020–21, his UCLA teams became the first to win all three in the same season. He was the first coach to win Top Gun (the law school one-on-one national championship) twice. At the time of publication, UCLA Law’s trial team was ranked #1 for the third consecutive season.