Capitol City Challenge Hosted by the American University Washington College of Law

The Trial Advocacy Program and Mock Trial Honor Society at the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) hosted the third annual Capitol City Challenge Mock Trial Competition on March 18 – 20, 2010. Eighteen teams from law schools around the nation were selected from a large number of applicants to participate in the trial of a criminal case at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

The Competition, which alternates between the use of civil and criminal case files each year, has two distinctive features: (1) the optional use of modern courtroom technology, including document evidence cameras and PowerPoint presentations; and (2) an innovative Challenge Ceremony permitting teams, based on a random draw, to select their first found opponents, but offering the challenged teams the opportunity to select which side of the case to represent.

Ultimately, Fordham Law School's team defeated William & Mary Law School's team in the final round. The "Best Advocate" award in the final round was presented to Benjamin Pred from Fordham. The "Best Prosecution Advocate" award in the preliminary rounds was presented to Brandon Prince from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law, and the "Best Defense Advocate" award in the preliminary rounds was presented to Elizabeth Quirk from the Georgetown University Law Center.

The Washington College of Law Trial Advocacy Program and Mock Trial Honor Society have taken into account the feedback provided by participating schools in the past competition years and is pleased to announce that next year, for the Fourth Annual Capitol City Challenge, there will be an additional 2 rounds. The competition will now consist of three preliminary rounds with a cut to a quarter-final round of eight teams. This will guarantee students another round and enable more teams to advance from the preliminaries.

The Fourth Annual Capitol City Challenge will take place March 29 - April 1, 2012. More information about next year’s Capitol City Challenge will be forthcoming on the competition website at www.wcl.american.edu/go/ccc.