LEAD 14
Mock Trial Winter 2020

This is not the current course catalog

Offered for the seventh time as a Winter Study Program, Mock Trial provides students with the opportunity for collaboration, teamwork to solve common problems, and critical analysis of facts and documents in the context of a legal dispute. Two teams are formed, and the teams work as units to review and analyze a fact pattern secured from the American Mock Trial Association. The “final exam” is the presentation of two trials with the teams switching sides for the two trials. The adjunct professors (both Williams graduates) are experienced trial attorneys. The class is limited to 16 students to form the two 8-member teams. The course has been well received as a Winter Study offering, and potential students are encouraged to review prior evaluations. As a Leadership Studies offering, this course allows students to work together to select a case strategy, determine what facts and documents will support the selected strategy, perform direct and cross examination of witnesses, and deliver opening statements and closing arguments. The course meets twice a week, usually on Mondays and Tuesdays for 3.5 hours each day. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Mr. Olson graduated from Williams in 1971 and practiced civil litigation for 40 years with the same firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2019 he relocated to Boston to be nearer his family but continues to practice law. The practice focuses on construction law and specifically suretyship. In 2019 he argued a suretyship case in the Federal Court of Appeals. He has taught the Mock Trial Winter Study Course in 6 prior years and has enjoyed the opportunity to work with his students. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Steve Brown graduated from Williams in 1971. After graduating from Villanova Law School where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, Steve has been a litigator and trial lawyer for 40 years concentrating his practice in white-collar criminal defense and civil rights. He was a partner at Dechert LLP from 1991 to 2016, when he retired and became Civil Rights Counsel to the firm. He has spent much of his career doing pro bono work including representing Guantanamo Bay detainees and people and prisoners whose constitutional rights have been violated. Steve has represented or supervised young lawyers at Dechert in over 150 prisoner civil rights cases, including 40 trials in federal courts