GRACE IN THE MOCK TRIAL COURTROOM: A PROFESSOR’S
PERSPECTIVE BY NICHOLAS MILLER, ].D., PH.D.
This team was not only representing WAU but also their Sabbath convictions.
We were given special times on Friday afternoon and Saturday night for our first
trials, whereas all the other teams had two trials on Saturday. Two other teams
graciously agreed to participate on our altered schedule. We expressed our
appreciation to both the AMTA and the other teams for accommodating our
convictions. The trials went well, but there was no storybook ending, with the
Recently, | traveled with 10 students from the Washington Adventist University (WAU) mock trial
team that | coached to our regional competition at Princeton University. We were scheduled to
participate in four trials against university teams from up and down the East Coast. We were also
accompanied by my co-coach Stephen Brennwald, D.C. attorney and WAU alumnus, and Jonathan
Scriven, associate director of the WAU Honors College and director of the WAU Center for Law
and Public Policy, which houses the Pre-Law and Mock Trial programs. The students are a group of
creative, bright, fun, spiritually inquiring and committed young people who are a delight to work
with.
For them, it was their first mock trial experience, due in part to the interruption by the COVID-19
pandemic. For me, it was the continuation of a journey begun about 20 years earlier when |
coached the very first mock trial team at WAU in the 1990s. At the time, the American Mock Trial
Association (AMTA) did not make allowance for Sabbath observance. Thus, our team was limited to
one invitational match with the University of Maryland. | was very proud of those students who won
that invitational match against an impressive Maryland team, one that went on to win the national
championship that year. But in the subsequent years, the AMTA created a schedule that did allow for
the participation of Sabbath-keeping teams. |. :
WAU storming to victory in their maiden campaign. Rather, we were defeated in : ea
all four of our matches, an expected outcome for a team full of rookies. But the
students gave more than a good accounting of themselves.
All the other teams we played had attorneys with multiple years of experience,
gr 1
(Above) WAU student Henrique DaSilva is cross
but our team was right in the competition. All three of the WAU attorneys examined by opposing counsel from the United
appeared multiple times on the list of best attorneys over four different trials. States Military Academy at West Point team.
Three of our witnesses also appeared on the list of best witnesses. There was
a total of 28 teams from a variety of well-known and much larger schools,
(Below) WAU attorney Ajeya Watson questions a
witness as co-counsels Shea Standish and Gopi
including the University of Maryland, Princeton University, Yale, and Tufts. At Sunkara look on.
one trial, when our opposing team heard that we were from a school of only Ey
400 students, they broke out into spontaneous applause. As coaches, we were
justifiably proud of our students and their representation of our school.
The W
wau.edu
Just as importantly, this group of students
also blessed the Princeton Seventh-day
Adventist Church with a wonderful praise
and worship service on Saturday. There,
| had the privilege to preach on religious
liberty and the Sabbath; but it was the
students, and their joyful and enthusiastic
, playing, singing and worshipping that was
the highlight of the service. | was gratified
that the students also paid attention to the sermon, prompting a lively discussion
of the Sabbath on our afternoon walk and a desire by some of our non-Adventist
students to study it more deeply and its prophetic role.
This was truly a unique weekend of representing WAU, our faith and the Sabbath
in student pre-law circles at a national level. We saw grace in the Sabbath
accommodation that allowed us to participate, in the schools that volunteered to
work with our schedule, in the friendships that were made with members of the
other teams, as well as in the wonderful worship and praise we enjoyed as a group
on Sabbath. So far, we are the only Adventist university to participate in this program,
AU 2023 Mock Trial team and we challenge our sister schools to take up the gauntlet and join us! In the
meantime, those interested in a tremendous pre-law experience should consider
carefully this program offered at WAU.