California Mock Trial

Courtroom Artist Contest

The Courtroom Artist Contest is a contest that allows artistically talented students the opportunity to participate in the Mock Trial Program. Contestants observe their schools’ trial during Round 1 (optional practice) and Round 2 (official round), and create drawings of the courtroom scene. Each Mock Trial school may enter up to three courtroom artists. The top two high school winners of the Los Angeles County Courtroom Artist Contest will be eligible to compete at the State Mock Trial Finals.

Contest Rules and Procedures |  Judging Criteria

All artists must:

• be affiliated with a registered LA County Mock Trial school and enrolled at the team’s school.

• pay a $35.00 entry fee and included on their team’s Tabroom registration.

• complete a waiver/release form authorizing the publication or reprinting of their Artists Contest submission for educational purposes. No financial compensation will be awarded.

During Round 2 (official round):

• Introduce yourself to the attorney scorers, say your name, and identify yourself as the courtroom artist.
• The sketch must depict a courtroom scene you observe during your team’s Round 2 trial. You are not allowed to take photos during the trial to reference when creating your sketch.
• You cannot start sketching until the court is called to order by the bailiff.
• Once the trial has started, you may not have any contact with anyone (parents, teachers, students, and spectators). You must create your drawing completely independently.

At the end of Round 2:

• You must submit your official drawing to the presider. Only drawings submitted by the presider will be entered in the contest.
• Your art sketch submission must:
  • be done in color.
  • be on paper with dimensions 11” X 14” in a horizontal format.
  • include the label with your name and team code only provided at check-in for Round 2.

Tips & Ideas

• Let the viewer know right away that this is a courtroom. Include items that convey that setting, but don’t focus on sketching a microphone instead of the witness on the stand. 

• Remember to tell as full a story as possible. The drawing should represent what you see but also, through the drawing, tell a story.

• Find the most newsworthy action that occurred in the courtroom. Perhaps there is an “ah ha” moment, an intriguing witness, a shocking development with which to capture the emotion of the trial. The artist must remember that this is true reporting and must be the “eyes of the court.”

Courtroom Journalist Contest

The Courtroom Journalist Contest allows students to experience a courtroom setting from the perspective of a news reporter and learn about the American legal system from actual judges and attorneys. Through the voice of a newspaper reporter reporting on a criminal case, students observe and report on their schools mock trials. Students have 24 hours to submit an article depicting the courtroom trial.

Download: Contest Rules | Scoring Guidelines | Sample Journalist Article | Reporters’ Handbook | Anatomy of a News Story

Contest Rules & Procedures

• All journalists must be affiliated with a registered LA County Mock Trial team and enrolled at the team’s school.
• All journalists must be on the team’s registered list, pay a $35.00 registration fee, and submit a student waiver & release form by October 4, 2025. The student waiver & release form authorizes the publication or reprinting of the Courtroom Journalist Contest submissions for educational purposes. No financial compensation will be awarded.
• All journalists must write their articles based on their team’s Round 2 trial.

During Round 2:

• May sit in the jury box away from the scoring panel if there is room.
• Introduce themselves to the presider during the team’s introductions – identify themselves as the courtroom journalist.
• Once journalist is in the courtroom, they may not have any contact with anyone from their team (parents, tachers, or fellow students). Journalist must draft your article completely independently.

After Round 2:

• All journalists must type their articles. Typed submissions must be a 12 point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, and double-spaced. The article may not exceed 850 words, excluding the journalist’s name and team code. 
• Submitted articles should be in the voice of a reporter covering a criminal trial. Journalists may not use dictionaries and thesauruses during the trial, but they may use them in completing their articles.
• Journalists must submit their article as a WORD or PDF format. File name must be saved with journalist’s name and team code only.
  
• All contestants must emailed their articles to daisy@teachdemocracy.org by 6:00pm on:
  • November 13 for the high school entries
  • November 15 for the middle school entries
    
    Journalists may refer to the Los Angeles Mock Trial case materials, the Journalism Reporters Handbook, and the Judging criteria during the contest.

Competition Case Materials and Forms

Forms

Observer Form – Each team must designate an adult to complete and bring a copy of this form to each round. Before anyone enters the courtroom, the designated person must survey the courtroom to make sure it is left exactly as it started. The designated adult must submit the completed observer form to the presider at the end of the trial.

Timesheet – The clerk (& unofficial timekeeper) must bring a copy of this form to each round. The clerk (& unofficial timekeeper) must submit their completed timesheet to the presider at the end of the trial.

Team Rosters – Each team must complete a prosecution and a defense team roster. The team must bring at least six copies of the completed prosecution or defense (depending on their side assignment) team roster for each round to distribute. During team check-in, the teacher-coach must submit one copy of the team roster to the Teach Democracy staff. Then, the clerk or bailiff will distribute a copy of the team roster to the presider, each of the scoring attorneys, and the opposing team before the start of the trial.

Prosecution Team Roster | Defense Team Roster

Timecards – Teach Democracy will provide the timecards, there is no need to bring copies to the trial. The presider will distribute the timecards to the clerk before the start of the trial. The clerk must return the timecards to the presider at the end of the trial.

Scoresheet sample

Miscellaneous

How to Write a Letter to Your Legislator
Sample Fundraising Packet

Awards

Helen Bernstein Tribute Award

Attorney Coach of the Year Award

The Rogan Family Perpetual Trophy

The Rogan Family Perpetual Trophy, established in 2024, honors the remarkable achievements and lifelong commitment to justice and democracy of Richard R. Rogan, Mary Goode Rogan, and Patrick G. Rogan.

Richard R. Rogan served as chief deputy attorney general from 1959 to 1963 under State Attorney General Stanley Mosk. He also held federal appointments in Washington, D.C., as special assistant to the U.S. attorney general, personnel officer in the Executive Office of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and executive secretary to the Board of Economic Warfare. While practicing as a business and personal injury attorney at Rogan & Rogan, a law firm he opened with his wife Mary, Richard represented the state of California in the Federation of Young Democrats, also serving on the Democratic County Committee for Los Angeles and the State Central Committee. Richard also served on an early Board of Directors for Teach Democracy, known then as Constitutional Rights Foundation, from 1965 to 1978.

Richard Rogan and Mary Goode met while attending Yale Law School, where Mary was one of only four women in her graduating class. After graduating, she served in the Office of the General Counsel for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. and later joined her husband in opening Rogan & Rogan where she practiced in a variety of areas, including commercial, real estate, and family law. In 1965, Mary was appointed to the Burbank Municipal Court by Governor Pat Brown and, ten years later, was promoted to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Jerry Brown. Mary sat as a superior court judge in Pasadena and was known for being tough yet fair in her sentencing, while also showing interest and providing guidance to those she placed on probation.

In dedication and generosity, this trophy was made possible by Patrick G. Rogan. Much like his parents, Richard and Mary, Patrick has devoted his career to law. As a trial attorney, first in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office and later with Lillick McHose and Charles, Pillsbury Madison, and his own firm, Rogan Lehrman, Patrick has tried more than 130 superior court cases to verdict, as well as both civil and criminal cases in the U.S. District Court. These cases ranged from anti-trust suits, major product and lender-liability matters, class actions, aviation accidents, and maritime claims involving the Longshore and Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act, among other matters. Over the course of his career, Patrick has served as a valued mentor to many and has received the honor of induction into numerous organizations recognizing outstanding achievements of trial attorneys. In recognition of his trial skills in civil and criminal matters in State and Federal Court, Patrick was elected a Fellow in The American College of Trial Lawyers, The International Society of Barristers, American Board of Trial Advocates, awarded the rank of AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell for more than 25 years, and has been a member of SuperLawyers for more than 20 years.

Teach Democracy and the many students and teachers we serve remain extremely grateful for the continued generous support of the Rogan family, and we are proud to present this trophy to the first-place Los Angeles County High School Mock Trial team in the family’s honor.