For the second year in a row, members of the firm’s New York office successfully worked with a group of seventh graders from the St. Ignatius Loyola Junior High School in the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition to win the championship.
In preparation for the competition held on June 7th at the Bronx Supreme Courthouse, 18 lawyers and staff met with 47 seventh graders one afternoon a week for four months. Twenty-four of the students were selected to represent St. Ignatius Loyola in the seventh grade competitions. These students competed against 26 other teams from various schools in New York City.
In addition to the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition, WilmerHale addresses issues of concern to urban young people and their families through its Youth and Education Initiative (YEI). This program was established in an effort to increase the educational opportunities available to children and has produced striking results in terms of student morale, student and staff retention, college acceptance rates, child literacy, communication skills and community building.