The North Suburban Bar Association hosted our 9th Annual High School Mock Trial Invitational on Thursday, February 3, 2022. The event was co-sponsored by Board Member Justice Jesse Reyes and The Diversity Scholarship Foundation which allowed us to purchase specialized mock trial software in order to host the tournament virtually. Justice Reyes also opened up the tournament and provided welcoming remarks to this year’s Zoom audience and participants. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most high school mock trial tournaments for this school year were cancelled. As a result, the NSBA did not turn any teams or students away from registering. To the contrary, we hosted a record approximately 500 students and 36 teams from all over the state in the competition. We also continued to expand our reach with schools from far down state participating this year.
In keeping with our association's goals of advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and legal education, we hosted an extremely diverse tournament in terms of schools, students, attorneys, and judges competing and volunteering for this wonderful event. We had judges and attorneys volunteer from most courthouses in the county. In addition to awarding the top three team awards, this year, we also continued our trend from last year with awards for the top three attorneys and top three witnesses.