Veritas Prep Students Argue Their Way to Excellence at Mock Trial

The Mock Trial program at Veritas Prep holds an impressive record in the world of Mock Trial championships. The varsity team, Atticus, recently took first place in the Arizona High School Mock Trial State Champions and will participate at the National High School Mock Trial Championship in May, hosted in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the fifth time Veritas Prep has placed first in the state competition since 2019, placing third in the national competition in 2022.

The program is comprised of three squads—Scout, Attacus, and Jem, named after the three main characters from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a modern classic in American literature that follows a lawyer and his family as they navigate a trial in 1930’s Alabama. The Atticus team, named after Atticus Finch, the lawyer in the novel who was defending a man falsely accused, is the varsity team made up of upper classmen. The Scout team, named after the narrator of the novel, and the young daughter of Atticus, is the intermediate team, while the Jem team, named after Atticus’ son in the novel, is designed for new participants.

The teams are led by Head Coach William Klain, a Veritas parent and Director at the law firm Fennemore, where he practices in the area of complex corporate and commercial litigation, and fellow coach, Patrick Keery, also a Veritas parent, and Managing Partner at Keery McCue. These seasoned lawyers provide real-world scenarios and offer guidance through the mock legal proceedings.

According to Keery, the courtroom standards are sharply authentic. “A lot of the arguments are sort of the base rules that we will use often. For example, you know, hearsay or character evidence,” the coach noted. Real judges preside at many of the tournaments, and have commented to the coaches, “If the lawyers came in half as prepared as your students came into our courtroom, it would be blissful for us.”

Co-Captain Trinity Lindsay explained how each six‑member squad receives a court case scenario and must perform every facet of a trial. “Three of the members will be attorneys on one side and then the witnesses on the other side, and then that flops. So, most people are going to be an attorney role and a witness role for any round. You’re asked to portray a witness, make up a character, but then also learn to be an attorney and learn the rules of evidence and how to make arguments.”

Arguing cases comes naturally to these students, many of whom are seniors and have had four years of Socratic seminar in Humane Letters classes, where they learn to think through literature and concepts, and thoughtfully defend their stance through peer discussion. Co-Captain Avangeline Bailey understands how this learned skill has paid off in the world of mock trials. “You have to know the entire case backwards and forwards… that’s really just pushing your level of argument.”

Salma Ahmed, another co-captain attributes team chemistry and camaraderie to their success “Something that really helped us during the state competition is just that we knew each other.”

The verdict is clear for Veritas Prep’s Mock Trial students. The experience offers rich legal training, confidence under pressure, and friendships that stand the test of time, long after the gavel drops. “There’s more to mock trial than just the actual writing of the work,” added Ahmed. “You get to build connections with your teammates, and I would say it’s an opportunity that I’m so happy I participated in.”

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