How the new Saint Michael’s Mock Trial Club enhances skills across all majors

A club formed at Saint Michael’s in the fall is already showing the wide-reaching applications of the skills students gain through participation.  

The President of Mock Trial, Ryann Edwards ’26, said she has always had a passion for government, and she had wanted to start a Mock Trial group since the start of her time at Saint Michael’s. Students are assigned roles such as attorneys or witnesses for a specific case, and each session focuses on refining different aspects of the trial, she said. 

“I’ve always been on a pre-law track, and I was looking to kind of implement that in a way outside of the classroom,” Edwards said. 

Members of the newly formed Saint Michael’s College Mock Trial Club before their first competition.
(Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Mock Trial Club has a total of seven members, including Edwards and her co-captain Aidan Finnegan ’25, a fellow pre-law student. Other leadership roles have not been distributed yet because of how new the club is, she said. 

The Mock Trial Club was officially established in August 2024 after gaining approval from the Student Government Association on campus. 

Working with real-world scenarios  

Mock Trial Club meets every week to go over a case together, Edwards said. The purpose of assigning a case in Mock Trial Club is to give students a real-world legal scenario to work with, helping them develop a deeper understanding of legal processes and courtroom procedures, Edwards said.  

Saint Michael’s College Mock Trail co-captains Aiden Finnegan ’25 and Ryann Edwards ’26.
(Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Once receiving the case in the Fall 2024, the club worked alongside the former Assistant Attorney General of the state of Vermont, Mark Patane, who put together the case for Mock Trial.  

 “Our case was a murder case,” Finnegan said “So we were trying to put together the pieces of like, who was where and when, and do our own little investigation. It felt like we were almost doing police work.”  

Edwards, who is double majoring in Political Science and Philosophy & Ethics, said that Mock Trial Club is a way for students to get out of their comfort zones, and the club can be applicable to a wide variety of majors and minors. While Mock Trial may seem like an explicitly legal club, witnesses are often Theatre majors since they are taking the role of someone else.  

The skills that come with Mock Trial are valuable and developed through practice, Edwards said. 

“There’s some memorization that comes with it, as well as public speaking skills and confidence in that, as well as really thinking on your feet,” Edwards said. 

A Mock Trial competition 

Edwards and Finnegan along with five other team members attended a Mock Trial competition on Feb. 1 and 2 at Boston College alongside 15 local universities.  Every university attending the competition was assigned a team to debate against, and Saint Michael’s College was randomly assigned Boston College as its competitor, Finnegan said.  

Some of the other universities in attendance included LaSalle University, Dartmouth College, Stonehill College, UMass Lowell, Brandeis University, Harvard College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Suffolk University and Bryant University.  

The first members of Saint Michael’s College’s Mock Trial Club hit the ground running by attending a regional competition the first year of its forming.
(Photo by Sophie Burt ’26)

Stephon Boatwright, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, oversees Mock Trial Club and also attended the competition at Boston College.  

“Everyone came prepared and competed with a high level of professionalism,” Boatwright said. “Students had their scripts and arguments well-rehearsed, but it went beyond that as they were adapting and thinking like lawyers. It was clear how seriously they took it. The competition itself was tough, with talented teams from across the region, but our students held their own and represented SMC well.”  

Saint Michael’s College ended up winning one of the rounds of the competition, and Finnegan emphasized how valuable the experience was. Finnegan was recently accepted into Suffolk Law School and said that Mock Trial is definitely something that helped further his skillset with his career goals.  

“A career that seems like it would be three years away as I finish up law school, felt attainable,” Finnegan said. “It felt tangible, and it felt compelling. So that was something I never expected, and mock trials 100% changed my view.”