STUDENT•SPOTLIGHT Nervous energy fuels mock trial victory
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reesia Singngam was nervous before trying the fictitious case of the State of Lone Star v. Alan Blizard. Once the annual intramural mock trial contest began, however, the 2L forgot about the audience and just concentrated on the work at hand, as did her 2L teammate, Samuel Greenberg.
Sadie Levine, left, and Christine Gertsch competed in the Mock Trial Final Bench last fall.
That laser-sharp focus earned them the victory, and Singngam also won the award for best opening statement. Acting as defense, they competed against 2Ls Christine Gertsch and Sadie Levine, who acted as prosecutors. Judge Howard T. Owens Jr. of Bridgeport presided over the final bench, accompanied by Dean Brad Saxton and attorney Ryan O’Neill ’08. First-year law students acted as witnesses. “It was a great opportunity to apply a lot of what I was learning in the classroom to a real-world setting,” said Greenberg, who was also named the best overall advocate. “We got a glimpse of how litigators do their job every day,” he said. As the defense team, Singngam and Greenberg attempted to establish reasonable doubt. They had a week to prepare for each round. Of all the trials, Singngam said she was
SUPREME COURT REVIEW In October, Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, and Professor Jeffrey Meyer presented “The Supreme Court Review: Looking at Last Year’s Decisions and This Year’s Term.” Shapiro and Meyer focused on several of the landmark cases before the Supreme Court this year, including the constitutional challenges and the federal health care law to Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The Arizona law includes a requirement that local police officers check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. The School of Law’s Federalist Society sponsored the event.
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QUINNIPIAC LAW • SPRING 2012
Freesia Singngam argues for the defense, along with Samuel Greenberg, right. the most nervous about the final bench. The competition was a collaborative event, with many members of the Mock Trial Society (past and present) acting as judges in the preliminary and semifinal rounds, including Christian Gunneson, Annie
Muldowney, Rob O’Brien, Wade Luckett, Laurence Tamaccio, Evan O’Hara, Michael Sekkas, Kristin Losi, Stephen Gillett and Cory Schug, all 3Ls. O’Brien, who is executive vice president of the society, organized and ran the tournament. James Cresswell ’11, former president of the society, was presiding judge in the morning semifinal round, and Sean McGuinness ’09 served as presiding judge in the afternoon.
Ryan O’Neill ’08, left, and Judge Howard T. Owens Jr. presided.