Some aspiring attorneys had their day in court recently in a good way.

The attorneys in this case are high school students and the pre-law career pathway offered through the Jessamine Career and Technology Center.

They took part in a mock trial, where they argued a fake case in a real courtroom with a real judge.

Nothing truly prepares students with the actual legal skills that we're learning in our law programs today.

If these students jump from high school into law school today, they will outperform college graduates, hands down, guaranteed with the skills we're giving them.

Experiential learning is an incredible way to grow an education, as opposed to reading about it in a book or to, you know, seeing about it something online.

When you get to go and participate in a trial, when you get to participate in learning the facts of the case, and then turn around and get to make a presentation, make an argument, cross-examine a witness that really sets you apart as far as understanding and having a deep understanding for the legal system.

The system that we have of justice in this country.

So the case is the trial of a woman named Jordan Pike, her brother murdered a drug dealer, and she's on trial for allegedly helping him commit that murder.

My role in the case is that I perform the closing argument.

So at the end of the trial, I'm the one who goes before and thumbs everything up for the defense.

And I cross-examine the detective, the police detective who investigated the case and who is trying to kind of tell you that all the evidence points to the defendant.

And I, direct examine an eyewitness who saw something that implies that the defendant took active steps to prevent violence in this case.

This is a really fun case.

It's the case I've been involved in the most since I'm the senior.

And, yeah, I'm the.

I, I we were split into two teams that you saw today and the team, prosecution and defense.

I'm an attorney for both sides of my team.

So I direct scholar Boyle cross Jordan Pi, and then I do the opposite on the other side.

I do the opening and closing as well.

It's really fun to do.

And I'm quite involved on the team.

And I feel like, everyone, all my teammates really make it very enjoyable.

We just learn so much like case law, precedent, everything.

Like that.

And we work with real Kentucky statute.

We have gotten so many compliments as to how well we are in the courtroom, how professional we are and how we are.

Sometimes better than actual, lawyers.

In this case, it was readily apparent they had studied the facts.

They knew the law.

They were prepared to make arguments.

And so the level of preparation here was something that I haven't seen before.

We take students that they're in their show.

They need to know how to communicate with one another in a professional way.

I think that is something that our workforce needs across the boards.

Students are used to this, right?

More and more they're used to that.

Are they used to actually communicating professionally?

Not with, the slang that we all use in our text and such.

Can they write, professionally?

Can they, handle themselves with the quorum?

So it's giving them, just a professional level of, personality attribute that I don't think is really taught outside of this study.

This is an extremely beneficial thing, especially for people who are looking to go into law careers.

First of all, it teaches you to do public speaking in a really natural way without ever having to be, like, centered around that and feel like you're forcing yourself to do public speaking.

It's a very natural kind of argument.

It teaches you to analyze the rules of evidence, to analyze a fact pattern, like the case we have.

We get it months in advance.

We write all our material over a long period of time.

It teaches us to prepare and to understand the legal arguments in question, and then to know what it's like to present those in a courtroom.

I feel like my public speaking is a lot better, and I feel like this has really helped me just get practicing on saying and doing my openings and closings really good on public speaking, bringing us through that.

Jordan, like did this to me every time I'm like in a room where I get to speak to a bunch of people, I feel like a lot more confident than I did before I did my trial.

I don't think they're ever going to forget these experiences, and their employers are going to be thankful for it.

And even the kids that don't choose the law pathway this year, if they go into even becoming a doctor, the communication skills they learn here are going to transition.

These skills are transitional, making a work ready workforce.

And I'm happy that Kentucky has these opportunities now for kids.

Yeah.

Hear, hear.

Brilliant minds and a great program.

The Mock Trial team recently won third place in the Kentucky State Trial competition.

And a fun fact, some of those students also saying in an acapella group called Law Capella.