3 Franklin Grads Going To National Mock Trial Championship

From Baltimore County Public Schools: Three graduates of Franklin High School are members of the UMBC Mock Trial team that has qualified for one of 48 slots in the American Mock Trial Association’s National Championship.

The Franklin High grads are Sydney Gaskins, a UMBC sophomore and recruitment chair for the school’s mock trial program; Ethan Hudson, a UMBC junior and president of the program; and Thomas Kiley, a UMBC sophomore and the program’s treasurer. All three of them are ‘double-sided’ competitors, meaning they compete as attorneys or witnesses for both the plaintiff and the defense.

Out of more than 700 college teams across the nation, only 48 advance to the mock trial national championship. The National Championship Tournament will be held April 4 – 7 in Philadelphia. UMBC’s A Team qualified by its performance at the national semifinals hosted by the University of Richmond, March 16 – 17.

“Literally half of my top team is comprised of Franklin High grads,” said Benjamin Garmoe, Esq., head coach of the UMBC Mock Trial Team, adjunct instructor at UMBC, and staff counsel at Vernon & Fanshaw. Garmoe said that he goes to Franklin High scrimmages when he can and that he is “blown away” by the work the students are doing at the high school level.

“If I could recruit all the Franklin High School ‘mockers’ to come to UMBC, I would,” he said.

The Franklin Academy of Law (as its extracurricular mock trial and moot court program is known) is led by Chris Lambert (a former practicing attorney) and social studies teacher Emma DiSciullo, and coached by Patricia McHugh Lambert, an attorney at PKLaw. “They're responsible for so much of why the Franklin students come to me with so much skill,” says Garmoe.

He adds that what distinguishes the Franklin High program is “the level of work and professionalism they put in. They are always in the finals at the end of the year. That speaks to their commitment and the skill that they have in mock trial. I have so much respect for what they do.”

Garmoe notes that Gaskins, Hudson, and Kiley are all award-winning competitors and that Gaskins recently became the most decorated competitor in the history of the program – and she is just a sophomore. “This season, she has won more awards then there have been tournaments,’ he said. (The previous record-holder was Zachary Garmoe, Benjamin’s younger brother and a current assistant coach for the team.)

Competing in the mock trial program is a major time commitment. Team members practice a minimum of two nights a week. Garmoe estimates that many team members devote 15 hours each week to practicing. The fall is especially busy with as many as seven or eight weekend tournaments.

Beginning in August, Garmoe explains, a case packet is released, alternating each year between criminal and civil cases. That case, which this year is a civil case, becomes the basis of competition at invitationals, regionals, and national semifinals. However, those teams that advance to the national championship, as UMBC has, have only 18 days to learn and prepare for a new case.

Garmoe, who is a 2013 UMBC graduate, co-founded the mock trial program at the school. He began doing mock trial at Bowie High School and continued through UMBC and the University of Maryland School of Law.