Mock trial team sees success, law student awarded
Prior to law school, third-year law student Swapna Kilani was shy and reserved. Now that she is involved in the graduate student mock trial team, she has finally found her confidence.
“I felt like my voice didn’t matter that much,” Kilani said. “My persona is more confident now, because you have to take control of the courtroom.”
Kilani was awarded the 2014 Best Defense Advocate award at the Capital City Challenge held in Washington, D.C.
“Getting the award pushes me forward,” Kilani said. “It made everything worthwhile.”
The Capital City Challenge was Kilani’s second mock trial competition. The competition was based on a fictional case involving an alleged bribery in a beauty pageant.
This was also the second time in five years a member of the mock trial team received the Best Defense Advocate award, the last being Alex Hagen in 2010.
“It’s a huge honor,” associate law professor Tom Horton, who serves as the team’s coach, said. “It’s an honor for the team, for Swapna and USD.”
Kilani said she was initially shocked to hear she had received the award.
“It took me a couple of seconds to get off my chair,” she said.
Kilani, along with her mock trial teammates, spends multiple hours each day, along with entire weekends, reviewing evidence and strategies for competitions. For some members of the team, competing meant subbing out a traditional spring break for practice.
“It’s a lot of time management,” Kilani said. “I plan my day around mock trial.”
A benefit Kilani said she gained is anticipating what arguments her opponents might bring up.
“We had to think on our feet about what the other teams were thinking,” she said.
The most exciting part of competition is the beginning of a case, she said.
“When they ask for the first motions my adrenaline shoots up and you know this is it,” she said. “That’s the point where it’s all worth it.”
Graduate student Shane Andrews was Kilani’s partner throughout the Capital City Challenge. Andrews said the competition was the pinnacle to their preparation, and he and Kilani have developed a strategy where the two mirror each other, so her opening argument and his closing statement are almost identical.
“That challenge encompasses what we have been doing all year,” he said.
Graduate student Jennifer de Hueck said Kilani’s personality comes out in the courtroom.
“There is a confident feeling around her,” de Hueck said.
A team success
The team competed in nine tournaments throughout the season. Each competition has its own case, set of evidence and teams involved. At the Capital City Challenge, the team went up against teams from Georgetown, Cornell, Temple University and George Washington University.
Horton said the team’s success this year has stemmed from the group’s initiative.
“The strength of our team has been a really focused, competitive group that have worked really hard,” Horton said.
Most competitions the team participates in are invitation-only national competitions. For the Capital City Challenge, around 130 universities applied, but only 20 were invited to compete.
“It can be frightening as a coach,” Horton said. “Win or lose, I’m proud of our students when they do a good job.”
De Hueck said she could see the benefit from the competition.
“It was a really good experience at how practicing in the courtroom will be,” she said.
For the team, taking on difficult opponents is all about the mindset.
“They have the same information — what they have in front of us, we have in front of us,” Kilani said.
Horton said the graduate mock trial team has set an example for other law students.
“I’m very proud to see that kind of ethos in the law school,” he said.
Mock trial also provides an opportunity for the team to apply concepts learned in the classroom to real world situations, Kilani said.
Andrews said the competition has helped him develop storytelling techniques such as analogies for the courtroom and his cross examinations.
“Going into the experience, one of the fears I had was introducing an exhibit,” he said. “Now, it’s second nature.”
Despite individual awards and honors, the team still places value on working together.
“It’s all about the teamwork,” Kilani said.
Photo: Graduate student Swapna Kilani was awarded the Best Defense Advocate award at the Capital City Challenge held in Washington, D.C. Kilani, along with her mock trial teammates, spends hours each day reviewing evidence and strategies for competitions. (Malachi Petersen/The Volante)
