Join Us!

Mock trial is a competitive jury-trial simulation, where competitors play witnesses and attorneys. As a witness, you act as a character who played a part in the case, and as an attorney, you practice trial advocacy using facts in the case packet. You prepare both a prosecution/plaintiff and defense, and compete against other schools on the other side of the case.

As a member, you’ll be on one of Emory Mock Trial’s three teams and travel to several tournaments through the semester. You’ll learn public speaking and improvisational skills, study the rules of evidence, make close friends, and have a lot of fun!

Prior mock trial experience is absolutely not required to try out. The tryout process is designed to evaluate skills like public speaking, critical thinking, and creativity, which are key to being a successful competitor. Several BPMT competitors came into the program with zero mock trial experience, including several members of our executive board.

No! In our current roster, we have competitors interested in business, medicine, theater, physics, etc. Mock Trial is an opportunity to develop public speaking, teamwork, and extemporaneous skills that will serve you in any career path.

Any undergraduate enrolled at Emory University, including Oxford College. Unfortunately, if you are part of the London Launch program at Oxford, you will not be able to try out until your sophomore year, as the season requires you can travel with us from September.

In the end of August / early September, we will release a tryout packet. You can either tryout as an attorney and witness, or just as a witness. As an attorney, you will be asked to memorize and give a speech, and as a witness you will be asked to craft answers to questions based on a witness statement. Both types of tryout will also have an improvisational component.

While there is no set number the executive board has in mind, we typically take between 6-10 new members every year.

Throughout the season, a competitor typically attends 4 invitationals, each held in a different location across the U.S. In past seasons, we traveled to New York City, D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, Durham, Memphis, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and so many other places.

On average, a given team practices between 9-15 hours per week. Of course, this range varies depending on members’ schedules, how soon the next tournament is, and the requirements of that team.

Additionally, competitors attend weekend-long tournaments across the season, usually 3-4 in the fall semester and 2-4 in the spring semester.