Furman’s Top Mock program puts high school students in the courtroom

Every lawyer starts somewhere. For high school student Khalil Hanan, the sound of his footsteps echoing off the polished floors and high ceilings of the hallowed halls of a U.S. federal courthouse was the moment he knew he belonged in a courtroom.

Hanan was among the 36 high school students from throughout the United States and Canada who participated in Furman University’s Top Mock program this summer. For 25 years, Top Mock has offered an intensive, weeklong summer program of training and instruction from Furman’s experienced mock trial coaches and competitors.

Glen Halva-Neubauer, Furman’s Dana Professor and Chair of Politics and International Affairs, founded Furman’s Mock Trial program in 1995. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.

The program takes high school students with mock trial experience and polishes knowledge of the law and techniques for presenting sophisticated legal arguments. At the end of the week, they argue their cases in the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Greenville.

Hanan, from Bensalem, Pennsylvania, wasn’t sure what to expect when he signed up for Top Mock. By the time he strolled confidently into a federal courtroom, he knew he had been through something special.

“It’s only seven days, what can you do in seven days when you have three months to prepare in a normal season,” he said. “I never thought we would be as good as we were.”

All week, the students woke up at 7 a.m. and spent all day preparing. Lectures felt engaging and like active discussions, as students learned about evidentiary rules or how to examine affidavits. They formed quick friendships as they developed their legal cases late into the night.

The time crunch is part of the secret recipe, said Glen Halva-Neubauer, Top Mock director and Furman’s Dana Professor and Chair of Politics and International Affairs. Team dynamics and cooperation are skills they’ll need when they become part of a legal team later in their careers, “So it’s important for them to understand trial advocacy and push themselves to present a case competently,” Halva-Neubauer said.

“They didn’t get the case until they arrived on campus, and less than a week later they’re presenting,” he said.

Top Mock Coach Andy McCarthy hands an award to high school mock trial student Khalil Hanan at an awards banquet at the end of Furman’s Top Mock program. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.

For Halva-Neubauer, each Top Mock camp is a full-circle moment. Young, eager students come to campus to advance their legal education, and Furman alumni return to their alma mater to coach Top Mock teams and serve as judges for the final trial.

John Gillespie ’18 is an associate at the Edgefield, South Carolina law firm Massey & Massey, but his legal journey began through mock trial. He met Halva-Neubauer at a mock trial tournament when he was in high school, and the Top Mock program convinced him to become a Paladin. Mock Trial at Furman took him throughout the country for tournaments, accompanied by a network of alumni attorneys who passed on professional insights and have served as mentors as he’s stepped into his career.

“Halva-Neubauer is a big difference-maker with the energy and care he pours into the program,” Gillespie said. “He looks after his mock trial students and cares about them long after Furman. I think that’s Furman’s specialty.”

It certainly made an impression on Hanan. Top Mock put him in a federal courtroom arguing a legal case before a panel of attorneys.

“I knew instantly that I wanted to step into the courtroom every day,” Hanan said. “It’s about adapting under pressure and communicating with confidence, and Top Mock absolutely taught me that. Now I know I absolutely want to go to Furman.”