DISD Students Participate in T&K Annual Mock Trial Event

© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.By Joseph S. Pevsner Special Contributing Writer for The Texas Lawbook (June 6) – More than 50 students from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ Rising Star Council and Dallas ISD High Schools participated in this year’s Thompson & Knight Trial Academy at the George Allen Courthouse in downtown Dallas. Students from James Madison High School and the Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet acted as fact witnesses and jurors for five fictional civil trials involving breach of contract claims and fraud counterclaims. Associates and summer associates from Thompson & Knight acted as attorneys and expert witnesses, while firm partners served as judges, mentors and jury observers throughout the two-day event that took place May 30 and 31. Each trial was decided by a panel of 11 or 12 jurors, including Rising Star Council members from five DISD high schools; students, teachers, and parents from James Madison High School; and friends and family of Thompson & Knight attorneys and staff members. “We believe the Trial Academy is a meaningful and practical program that encourages high school students to act on their dreams of becoming members of the legal profession,” says Nicole Williams, the event’s coordinator and a partner in…