The Mock Review with Ben and Drew

Ben and Drew start by announcing that we are launching a Patreon to help us hire an editor for the show. The first fifteen minutes of the episode discuss why we're hiring an editor and how our Patreon and Discord will work. (Spoiler alert: there's a free tier!) After that, Ben and Drew go through all eleven invention of fact motions that are set for debate this coming weekend at the AMTA Board Mee...

Drexel Law Trial Competition Director Phil Pasquarello joins the show for a wide-ranging discussion on Mock Trial and the 2022 Trial by Combat competition. Phil goes through his time at Delaware as an AMTA competitor, what his program at Drexel Law is like, why he started his very successful video series WatchMock, and more. Phil then addresses the criticism raised on Mock Trial Confessions about...

Ben and Drew discuss results from both divisions at the 2022 AMTA National Championship Tournament, and then discuss a number of topics including COVID protocols at Nationals, the 2022-23 case preview, and the potential summer tournament for freshmen and sophomores. At the end of the episode, Ben and Drew remember some of the best props in AMTA cases, and look back on a challenging but successful...

Drew and Ben are joined by Stella Asmerom and Travis Harper of Harvard Mock Trial to discuss Harvard's victory at the 2022 AMTA National Championship in Lancaster, PA. Travis and Stella go through the last three years of their experience with Harvard, from their time as freshmen to building the team that eventually won it all. 

Yes, we know. This one is just a *little* bit late. We've promise we've got Nationals episodes coming very soon! In the meantime, here's the ORCS Week Two episode we recorded before NCT but Ben never got the chance to finish editing. (He's very sorry.) We chatted with Jack Styler of Wisconsin about their amazing run to Nationals this year, and we went through all four ORCS in week two.

Drew and Ben discuss the results from the four ORCS in week one.

Drew and Ben (belatedly) go through the results from the last ten Regionals in week four. 

Ben and Drew discuss results from the ten Regional tournaments in week three. 

Drew and Ben discuss AMTA's decision to hold ORCS and NCT in-person, and break down results from the Regional tournaments in Week 2. 

Ben and Drew break down the first weekend of 2022 Regionals results. We're also joined by Amaya Ronczyk, President of Dillard Mock Trial. Amaya discusses what it felt like to earn Dillard's first bid to ORCS since 2018, and also speaks on the role that HBCUs play in our community, what it's like to compete at an HBCU, and what AMTA should be doing to support HBCUs and encourage competitive diversi...

Ben and Drew discuss the recent news that all 2022 AMTA Regional tournaments will be held online.

Ben and Drew are back from a brief fall hiatus, and they are joined by Penn State President Dan Cohen to break down the Fall 2021 season! Ben, Drew and Dan go through results from a small number of fall tournaments, including Mumbo Jumbo, Tobacco Road, AAMTI, Mock at the Rock, Yale, Mocktopia, GAMTI, and Boston Tea Party. Then, the panel discusses the rise in COVID cases and the potential impact o...

After a short hiatus while Drew survives 1L, The Mock Review is back! Ben and Drew are joined by Riya Lakkaraju of Emory Mock Trial for a full report on how in-person mock trial looks right now. Riya discusses competing in a mask while Ben reports from the virtual season. After that, Ben, Drew and Riya debate how the AMTA season is going to look and discuss which teams are separating from the pack...

Criminal Case Committee Chair Neal Schuett returns to the show to discuss the 2021-22 case, State of Midlands v. Dakota Sutcliffe. Neal answers questions about the origins of the arson charge and the retrial aspect, why the defendant isn't testifying, and how the committee prepared for the possibility of a hybrid season. Bonus topics include the "live fire" demonstrative possibilites and Neal's pe...

Ben was present in Denver for the 2021 AMTA Board of Directors meeting, and in this episode Ben and Drew break down what happened at that meeting. Ben goes through what was discussed during the Tournament Administration Committee (TAC) meeting, how AMTA reached their decision on the format for the 2022 season, and his general impressions on how the board meeting went. Then Drew and Ben discuss oth...

Drew and Ben are joined by 2021 Trial by Combat Champion Audrey Shepard of UCLA Mock Trial. Audrey goes through her high school Gladiator championship, her time competing in AMTA at Moorpark Community College, what it was like to transfer to UCLA, and her entire experience preparing for, competing at, and winning Trial by Combat - including her extreme guilt at making Bennett Demsky close his cabi...

With the board meeting set for next weekend, Ben and Drew spoke to two different programs to give perspective from both sides of the discussion about the competition format for next season. First, Ben and Drew are joined by coaches Beth Georgian and Matt Thornburg from the University of South Carolina Aiken. Beth and Matt discuss why they reached out to AMTA to ask for the 2022 season to be virtua...

Ben and Drew are joined by Bennett Demsky of Tufts Mock Trial and Riya Lakkaraju of Emory Mock Trial. The first half of the episode is a discussion of each competitor's origin story and why they think Tufts and Emory are such successful programs. The second half is our 2021 Trial by Combat preview; Bennett and Riya discuss their plans for how to prep the case in 24 hours, what they learned as coac...

Ben and Drew are joined by Sydney Gaskins and Thomas Kiley of UMBC Mock Trial. Drew takes over interviewing duties as Ben, Sydney and Thomas discuss the journey that was the last four years, how the program overcame some difficult challenges when Sydney and Thomas were freshmen, whether they considered not competing for their senior year in an online season, how they felt as UMBC progressed throug...

Drew Evans is joined by UMBC Head Coach Ben Garmoe to discuss the results of the 2021 AMTA National Championship Tournament. Ben and Drew talk about UMBC's victory, Yale's incredible performance, and the outstanding teams in both divisions at Nationals.

Ben and Drew are joined by highly decorated witness Gurbir Singh of Cal Berkeley to break down the NCT field and the prep process, including the challenge of managing burnout and exhaustion this time of year, possible sleeper teams in each division to outperform their TPR, Gurbir's thought on the west coast teams at Nationals (@ u MTCBIAU), who could win the entire tournament, and whether the two...

For our first Nationals preview episode, Amanda Mundell returns to the show. Amanda is a member of the National Championship Tournament Civil Case Committee and she discusses how the case committee selected this topic, why they think the topic is sufficiently compelling and interesting to be used at Nationals, and how the committee considered time constraints and case balance when writing Westenme...

Drew and Ben discuss results from the last four ORCS tournaments and start to look forward to the 2021 National Championship Tournament.

Ben and Drew discuss some recent decisions by AMTA and break down the first week of 2021 ORCS results. 04:23 - Discussion of recent AMTA moves on TPR and scouting 20:20 - ORCS 1A 34:14 - ORCS 1B 44:15 - ORCS 1C 57:17 - ORCS 1D

Ben and Drew discuss the last week of 2021 Regionals and look forward to ORCS.