Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia County Wins Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Competition

HARRISBURG, Pa. (March 27, 2023) — Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia County won the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Statewide High School Mock Trial Competition, which took place March 24-25 at the Dauphin County Courthouse. The competition is sponsored by the PBA Young Lawyers Division.

This year’s winning team will represent Pennsylvania in the national mock trial finals to be held May 18-20 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Roman Catholic High School mock trial team students were Jeremiah Brown, Joshua Brown, Aidan Conry, Benjamin Foronda, Michael Gedraitis, Troy Hammond, Brennan Hewitt, Patrick Holahan. The teacher coach was John Pesabene. The attorney advisor was Steven Patton.

Joining the Roman Catholic team in the final round of competition was Cumberland Valley High School in Cumberland County. Team students were Nihar Bagkar, Daniel Blumenthal, Swamini Chiplunkar, Katelyn Ford, Mina Ghani, Joanna John, Rishita Kadre, Aapthi Kavuri, Ross Kluger, Sameera Komminani, Sahiti Kulkarni, Daniel Malinich, Krish Mittal, Naira Mohammed, Susan Monn, Yolanda Mwita, Nick Pierce, Sam Pimental, Jack Rosenstein, Abhitha Samudrala, Justin Shopp, Wasi Ullah and Andon Vonstein. The teacher coaches were Brian Bullock, Suzy Grim and Zara Wroblewski. The attorney advisors were Alan Boynton, Craig Kauzlarch and Steven Williams.

Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie, retired from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, served as the presiding judge.

In addition to Roman Catholic and Cumberland Valley, 12 teams participated in the state championships, including: Acquinas Academy of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County; Bensalem High School, Bucks County; Central Bucks South High School, Bucks County; Central High School of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County; Eden Christian Academy, Allegheny County; Greensburg Salem High School, Westmoreland County; Lower Moreland High School, Montgomery County; Northwestern High School, Erie County; Scranton Preparatory School, Lackawanna County; Seneca Valley Sr. High School, Butler County; State College Area High School, Centre County; and Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School, Luzerne County

This year, 245 teams from 208 high schools competed in district and regional levels of Pennsylvania's mock trial competition in hopes of gaining one of the spots at the statewide competition. Pennsylvania’s competition is one of the largest in the nation.

Throughout the competition, student teams were given the opportunity to argue both sides of the case before a judge. The students, who play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants, are assisted by teacher coaches and lawyer advisors in preparing for competition. Lawyers and community leaders served as jurors for the mock trials. The juries determined the winners in each trial based on the teams’ abilities to prepare their cases, present arguments and follow court rules.

This year’s case is a trial to determine whether a man who participated in an obstacle race and disappeared in the muddy water after “walking the plank” in an abandoned ship obstacle assumed his own risk, or if the event organizers were at fault for negligence.

The case was adapted by Jonathan A. Grode, Paul W. Kaufman and Jonathan D. Koltash from materials originally written by the Iowa State Bar Association Center for Law and Civic Education.

Serving as co-chairs of the Mock Trial Executive Committee were Koltash and Jennifer Menichini, a past chair of the Young Lawyers Division.

For more information about the 2023 PBA Statewide Mock Trial Championships and to read this year’s case, visit https://www.pabar.org/site/For-the-Public/Mock-Trial-Competition.