Bishop Guertin High School with attorney Shane McLaughlin, far left, lawyer/coach; Brian Jackson, center, teacher/coach, David Allen, faculty advisor, center; David Snyder, Bar Foundation director, far right.

Milford High School with Valenda Morissette, LRE, left; David Alcox, teacher/coach; Judge Hicks, back.

In the middle school state championship round, Milford Middle School edged Alton.

Alton Middle School with attorney Steve Sacks, left; Judge Hicks, center.

Also competing at the state finals were Kingswood Regional and Souhegan high schools, and McKelvie and South Meadow middle schools. It is a repeat victory for Milford Middle School; Souhegan was last year’s high school champion. 

Thirty-seven teams from 32 schools throughout New Hampshire competed this year. Mock Trial is sponsored by the New Hampshire Bar Association and supported with funding from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation’s IOLTA program. New Hampshire is one of only a few states in the country where the Mock Trial competition is held in actual courthouses, greatly enhancing the experience for the participants. Dozens of members of the Bar, including judges and lawyers, volunteer as presiding and scoring judges or as coaches for teams.

The Bishop Guertin team is now working on preparing a new case, from a fact pattern supplied by the national organizers, to be used at the national championships May 11-14 in Oklahoma City, Okla. (Only the high school champion competes at the nationals.) The attorney-coach for Bishop Guertin was Shane McLaughlin, of Nashua, who has been working with the team since January. The teacher-coach is Brian Jackson, and the faculty advisor is David Allen, who had coached the team for several years.

Assisting the Milford middle school team was attorney-coach John Kenison, and teacher-coach Stephanie Kokko.

For the state competition, the student teams argued the case of a police officer charged with attempted murder and assault in the shooting of a high student at a school event. The case raised questions regarding the use of deadly force, self-defense, and the admissibility of character evidence.

NH Supreme Court Associate Justice Gary Hicks giving feedback to Milford & Bishop Guertin High Schools after their presentations.

A number of attorneys and judges participated as volunteer judges in the finals, including: NH Supreme Court Associate Justice Gary Hicks, NH Superior Court judges Philip Hollman (retired),  Judge David Sullivan, Judge John Lewis; and from the District Court, part-time justices Phillips Runyon and Edward Tenney. Scoring judges included attorneys Bruce Jasper, Jaye Rancourt, Darla Sedgwick, Lisa Wellman-Ally, Christine Hanisco, Kelleigh Domaingue, Tracy McGraw, Patricia Peard, Martin Bender (retired), and Tracy Barbagiovanni. 

A list of all the volunteers will be published in the next issue.

Home | About the Bar | For Members | For the Public | Legal Links | Publications | Online Store
Lawyer Referral Service | Law-Related Education | NHBA•CLE | NHBA Insurance Agency | NHMCLE
Search | Calendar

New Hampshire Bar Association
2 Pillsbury Street, Suite 300, Concord NH 03301
phone: (603) 224-6942 fax: (603) 224-2910
email: NHBAinfo@nhbar.org
© NH Bar Association Disclaimer