alumni spotlight TYLER DORR ‘15

After graduating from Pope John Paul II High School in 2015, Tyler Dorr attended Vanderbilt University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science double major. He worked full time for the YMCA Youth in Government program, and eventually decided to attend law school. He is currently a Vanderbilt Law J.D. Candidate for 2025 with an interest in Administrative Law. In the summer of 2023, he will be working with the Metro Nashville Department of Law.

In the spring of 2023, Tyler and his teammate Logan Smedley participated in the Vanderbilt 1L Mock Trial Tournament, which included 40 teams of pairs of first-year students playing the role of attorneys in a bank robbery trial. In any given weekly round, a team of attorneys could have represented the prosecution or the defense, and they were tasked with delivering an opening statement, direct examinations of their witnesses, cross-examinations of the other side’s witnesses, and a closing statement. Throughout examinations, the attorneys were also required to object to violations of the rules of evidence. During the final round, Tyler and

Tyler Dorr (second from left) is pictured with Will Nicolaides (who played the role of the FBI agent), Logan Smedley (his tournament teammate - also pictured below), and Kathleen Fink (who played the role of the bank manager).

After graduating from Pope John Paul II High School in 2015, Tyler Dorr attended Vanderbilt University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science double major. He worked full time for the YMCA Youth in Government program, and eventually decided to attend law school. He is currently a Vanderbilt Law J.D. Candidate for 2025 with an interest in Administrative Law. In the summer of 2023, he will be working with the Metro Nashville Department of Law.

In the spring of 2023, Tyler and his teammate Logan Smedley participated in the Vanderbilt 1L Mock Trial Tournament, which included 40 teams of pairs of first-year students playing the role of attorneys in a bank robbery trial. In any given weekly round, a team of attorneys could have represented the prosecution or the defense, and they were tasked with delivering an opening statement, direct examinations of their witnesses, cross-examinations of the other side’s witnesses, and a closing statement. Throughout examinations, the attorneys were also required to object to violations of the rules of evidence. During the final round, Tyler and

Logan represented the prosecution before a “‘jury” of real-life judges, including Justice Campbell of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Tyler and Logan eventually secured first place in the tournament.

Tyler credits his experiences at Pope John Paul II High School for building a foundation for his endeavors as a law school student at Vanderbilt. He explained, “Throughout this experience, I was very grateful for Pope’s Mock Trial program! I spent several years on the mock trial team at Pope preparing materials, practicing, and traveling for tournaments. When I was at Pope, our team used the same rules of evidence and tasked attorneys with the same assignments: delivering opening and closing statements, building a case, introducing evidence, and cross-examining witnesses from the other team. Logan and my strategy throughout the Vandy tournament relied on creating likable witnesses and tying each piece of the case to a simple theme: things I learned on the mock trial team at Pope. Most of the folks that my partner and I faced had no opportunity to do mock trials in high school or college, so Dr. Barrow’s and Mr. Hooper’s coaching was a real advantage.”