An Overview of the 2022-23 Georgia High School Mock Trial Season
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Citation | Vol. 28 No. 6 Pg. 0026 |
| Pages | 0026 |
GBJ I Feature
If you are interested in getting involved with the Georgia High School Mock Trial Program, contact Director Rich Harris at 404-527-8779 or richardh@gabar.org.
BY RICH HARRIS
Members of the state champion Jonesboro High School team with Justice Carla Wong McMillian (center).
PHOTO COURTESY OF JONESBORO HIGH SCHOOL
The 2022-23 season of the Georgia High School Mock Trial (HSMT) Competition ended in gripping fashion on Sunday, March 19, with a championship round featuring Jonesboro High School and the Paideia School, presided over by Supreme Court of Georgia Justice Carla Wong McMillian. Those two teams had persevered through 10 rounds since early February to emerge as the two finalists. In the semifinals, Jonesboro won a close match against Cambridge High School with Judge William Ray presiding, while Paideia prevailed against Westminster Christian Academy with Justice Verda Colvin presiding. The championship round lived up to its billing, as the nine scoring evaluators split 5-4 in favor of Jonesboro.
A Season of Change
Overall, it was a season of change and a season of returning to courtrooms for the first all in-person competition since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A rather substantial change happened last June, when Michael Nixon stepped down after a decade as director of the program. After coaching a team for 12 years and becoming a devoted advocate of the many benefits of the competition for its participants, I was hired to step into the director role. It is not an overstatement to say that I had to hit the ground running.
Law Academy
Law Academy is a three-day intensive boot camp for the most dedicated and enthusiastic HSMT competitors in the state. Last summer, students from Athens, Dahlonega, Hahira, Savannah, Valdosta and of course throughout metro-Atlanta applied to attend this prestigious learning experience. The 2022 Law Academy class, with 42 students, was among the largest ever. It was held the last weekend in September, with most classes at the Bar Center.
A highlight of the event every year is the visit with Court of Appeals of Georgia Presiding Judge Stephen Louis A. Dillard, the special consultant to our HSMT program. On a Friday morning at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center, Presiding Judge Dillard spent almost two hours with the students, answering every question they had in what could be described as a hot bench in reverse. He...
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