As part of its new Students Today | Lawyers Tomorrow project, the Birmingham Bar Association will hold its first annual Mock Trial Competition on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.

The Jefferson County Courthouse will host the competition. The Birmingham Bar Association is the sponsor and funder of the campaign Students Today | Lawyers Tomorrow.

Birmingham-area law firms have acted as mentors for student teams, giving them case papers, training them in trial procedures and giving them guidance on how to act in court.

Local judges also have volunteered their time for the mock trial.

“Our Mock Trial Competition is the culmination of several months of hard work by scholars and the attorneys from around Birmingham who have been coaching the teams,” said Marcus Maples, president of the bar association and an attorney and shareholder at Baker Donelson. “Judges have been generous with their time and resources as well, serving as hosts for the competition.”

Maples hopes the program will encourage more local students and city residents of color to pursue legal careers.

“To accomplish our goal, it will take law firms committing their time to train high school students in courtroom advocacy. It will take members of our judiciary opening their courtrooms to host the competition. It will take the development of long-standing relationships with the administrators and teachers at Birmingham City Schools to grow this program from within. It will take our corporate partners and other non-profits committing their financial resources to award scholarships to those students who excel in this program,” he said.

The bar association also aims to endow scholarships for college mock trial programs in Alabama.