Leah Yao ’13: The Episcopal Academy Mock Trial Team has come to the forefront of everyone’s attention this spring with its recent string of successes. In the Delaware County District Competition, the team defeated Delaware County Christian School in the quarterfinals and Strath Haven’s second team in the semifinals. This win put the team into the District finals against Strath Haven’s first team. Despite a loss against this team, which made Episcopal the runner up in the district, as the largest district in the region, Delaware County sends not one, but two teams to the regional competition, which allowed the Episcopal team to continue its season.
At regionals, the team defeated the PA Leadership Charter School in a decisive 7-1 victory, which means that 7 of the 8 jury members (lawyers who volunteer to be a part of the program) agreed that the Episcopal did better in the trial. This win advanced the team to the statewide competition.
The statewide competition is held among the top twelve teams in the state out of the 312 competing teams. At this level, each team participates in two trials. The four teams with the top scores from these trials advance to the semifinals. Though Episcopal did not qualify as one of the top four teams, the two teams the Episcopal team competed against did qualify, which means that Episcopal competed against two of the four best teams in the state. In both trials Episcopal’s team lost by only one juror vote.
The mock trial team is divided into prosecution and defense, with three lawyers and three witnesses on each side. While the prosecution has only gone twice, the defense has competed in six trials. Rohan Gulati ‘13, co-captain of the club with Matt London ‘13, said that the defense has “faced a variety of prosecution angles and now [they] have a really solid case.” However, he added, “One of the challenges for states was shoring up our prosecution. It’s a matter of honing those arguments and getting them practiced.” It would appear that the team did so as the prosecution side only lost by a six point margin (510-504) in the statewide competition.
Kris Aldridge, faculty advisor of the team along with Jen Maier, explained, “The last few weeks have been a mad rush to constantly sharpen our skills, revisit and revise our case, and polish our approach and presentation.” These efforts have paid off this year, with their victories making Episcopal history. Aldridge attributed this to “the incredible amount of hard work that these students were willing to contribute and hours of preparation on top of sports.” Most schools that compete have a team that meets as a class or a sport, while Episcopal’s team meets on the weekends and only serves as an extracurricular activity.
According to Aldridge, “This group of students is particularly skilled. The most important quality other than preparation is thinking on your feet. These students have the ability to anticipate questions and the effects of them, really understanding how the entire case is built.”
In this fictional case based off a real trial, the defendant, Tatum Zillias, is charged with third degree murder after a crane collapses on his/her construction site and kills two individuals (the gender is based on who plays the role of Zillias in the trial). The prosecution must prove that Zillias acted with the legal definition of “malice,” a difficult task due to the varying definitions from other precedent-setting cases. The defense must counter this argument by saying that Zillias was acting in a generous way, using the crane to build houses for the homeless.
The foundation and expectations laid by prior teams is another factor that has helped the team this year. Aldridge stated, “The students participating now grew up in that system and every year it’s gotten a little better.” According to London, “The people that ran the club back then did a really good job and so that was the beginning of EA Mock Trial’s development.” He specifically cited the Class of 2011 and Class of 2012 as examples of leadership.
Unlike previous years, the co-captains decided not to split into two competing teams, but rather to build and strengthen one, talented team to better the chances of winning.
The co-captains hope that more people will get involved next year and that the team will continue to build on past success.es “We have some really strong rising seniors who I think will really be able to take the reins next year,” stated Aldridge, “They have performed admirably as witnesses and lawyers. I think that the future of Mock Trial is strong at EA.”

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