On January 20, Tucker Ellis attorneys coached the Cleveland Early College (CEC) High School Mock Trial Team in the first round of the 2017 Ohio Mock Trial Competition held at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center and Lakeside Courthouse. Each of the 49 teams from public and private high schools thoughout Cuyahoga County argued both sides of a defamation case.

At the conclusion of each trial, one “Best Attorney” and one “Best Witness” award was given. CEC students swept the “Best Attorney” awards and won a “Best Witness” Award — winning three of four possible individual awards. To advance to the regional, teams must win both trials. CEC won its opening trial against Brush, but lost its second trial to St. Joseph Academy.

Chelsea Mikula, Chelsea Smith, and Carter Strang coached the CEC team, assisted by Brandon Brown and Dairian Heard, both graduates of CEC who were Stokes Scholar summer legal interns at Tucker Ellis and members of Tucker Ellis-coached CEC mock trial teams.

Cleveland Early College High School is a Cleveland Metropolitan School District “Innovative School,” which ranks as one of Ohio’s best public schools despite the fact that the vast majority of its students come from families at or below the poverty line. Tucker Ellis is now in its 11th year of partnership with CEC — the leading prong of the firm’s award-winning pipeline diversity program — through which Tucker Ellis provides paid summer legal internships to CEC graduates, coaches its mock trial teams, teaches basic legal and Constitutional concepts, and provides in-school career counseling during frequent classroom visits.