Unscripted Direct

The first busy weekend of the competition season means our most action-packed episode yet!: 

• Justin and I admit a big oops
• Recaps from Stetson’s National Pretrial Competition (Liz Boals), Denver’s Summit Cup (Kevin Keyes), and the first weekend of All Star Regionals (Loyola Chicago’s Gina Gerardi and San Diego’s Frankie Digiacco)
• Question of the Week: Could my streak finally be at an end?
• Justin asks some tough questions to a titan in the community, Dean Charlie Rose. He talks about Stetson, NALAE, what it’s like to be Dean, what would happen if he coached against his daughter, and so much more.

Happy listening! 

In these week's episode:

• Justin interviews Cary Bricker and Jay Leach from Pacific McGeorge. They talk about how they built such a stellar program. Jay gets a little flirtatious. And Cary reveals what she really thinks of Jay's bowties. Spoiler: they are adorable.
• We have our first Tournament Spotlight, as Drexel's Phil Pasquarello recaps Battle of the Experts.
• Plus, Spencer is bad at receiving gifts and Justin is okay at poker...

(0:00:33) Introduction: Spencer and Justin each pick three major storylines for the new competition season.  
(0:11:25) Question of the Week!  
(0:17:28) Our guest this week is Judge David Mason of Washington University in St. Louis.  Judge Mason tells us why he is so deeply devoted to Wash U, what it’s like to compete at TYLA NTC nationals (and win) after the airline loses your luggage (including suits), and his love for singing—and how it, coupled with his grandmother’s guidance, helped give him direction in life after an incident of racial violence nearly derailed him at an early age.

Our guest this week is Adam Shlahet, director of Fordham's trial advocacy center. Adam gives us a sneak peek(!) of the 2020-21 trial competition performance rankings (which he plans to release in the next week). He discusses the virtues and challenges of having what might be the largest trial advocacy program in the country. And he gushes about his first mock trial idol.

This week, Justin and Spencer talk to Dan Tilly, professor and assistant dean at Campbell.  Dan opens up about his fight against cancer.  He talks about being coached by Gerry Powell.  And he answers the tough questions: Who was a better law school advocate--Dan or his Baylor classmate Rob Little?

Coach, professor, director, trial lawyer, trial consultant, and mother of 4.  Any one of these roles would exhaust the normal human being, but Liz Lippy is no normal human being.  Liz joins Justin to talk about her journey in law and life. 

Shark instinct?  Baby stepping out the direct examination?  Susan Poehls, the director of the renowned trial advocacy program at Loyola Law School, shares a few of her teaching and coaching secrets, as well as tells us the story of building one of the nation’s preeminent trial advocacy programs. 

It may seem like Liz was pre-ordained to build a first-class program at American, then take over the renowned Stetson program. But the reality is more complicated, and a much better story!