World Champs. It’s not often that any person or team from Ventura County is the “Champion of the World.” But that honor recently was earned by the La Reina Mock Trial Team. The La Reina team captured the 2011 World Mock Trial Championship at the Empire City Mock Trial Invitational Tournament on Oct. 23 in New York City. The competition included 16 state champions, six international champions and 34 at-large teams.
Team members include seniors Olivia Polk and Hannah Young; juniors Hannah Delsohn, Elizabeth Hribal, Lena Melillo and Rachel Warner; sophomores Olivia Aulicion, Ryanne Bamieh, Camila Hamideh and Nisah Srinivasa; and freshmen Leila Flanagan and Reilly Jones. The proud faculty advisor is Mrs. Liz Harlacher and dedicated team attorney coaches include Kendall Jones, Jean Wentz and Ron Bamieh.
La Reina has captured the Ventura County Mock Trial Championship 16 times since 1990 and has won the California State Championship twice, in 2008 and 2011. If you can’t get tickets to the World Series or London Olympics next year, you may want to see the World Champs in action again in February/March at the Ventura County Courthouse. They will be joined by other impressive high school students and teams in the 2012 Mock Trial competition.
As a reminder, VCBA board member Joe O’Neill has been making great strides in getting Mock Trial coaches and teams lined up. More attorney coaches are still needed. Contact Joe at oxatty@earthlink.net or (805)988-6700. Also, please consider being an attorney “scorer” on at least one night of the competition in February/March, 2012.
Unbroken. If you haven’t heard the story of Louis Zamperini you should take a moment and check him out on the web. Better yet, read Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller, “Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” Louis Zamperini was a world class miler and distance runner fromTorrance,California who ran track at USC. Along with another little-known runner named Jesse Owens, he was a U.S. Olympian on the U.S. Olympic Team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics inBerlin. During World War II, like all young men, he set off for war and served as an Army Air Corps bombardier on a B-24 Liberator. While on a rescue mission his plane crashed into the vast Pacific. He and two other American service men found themselves alone on a raft. Louie and one of the men survived an unbelievable 47 days in the raft only to be captured by the Japanese. Louie’s story of survival in a Japanese POW camp, his return, torment and redemption is gripping and inspirational. In the end, forgiveness saved him.
Thanks to an invitation from my Notre Dame track buddy and fellow attorney John Duffy, I got a chance to see Louie Zamperini on Oct. 6 at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort inSanta Barbara. This event, a fundraiser for Providence Hall prep school, featured a fifteen minute documentary by CBS’s Bob Simon on the background and history of Louie’s life. Later, Louie came onstage for a 30-40 minute interview. At 94 yearsold, Louie sounded more like a 50-yearold reciting dates, events and stories with precision. There were many veterans in attendance at the event and I have seen few other standing ovations that meant as much.
Louie was proudly wearing his USC cap all night. Sportswriter Woody Woodburn tells me that Louie has been a regular at USC track and sports functions over the years. He still wears that darn USC cap everywhere he goes.
The Future. My article has featured the present (with the La Reina team) and the past (with Louie Zamperini). So how about a little future? That subject was covered recently by Stuart Forsyth, an attorney and legal futurist. Stuart was the former L.A. County Bar Association Executive Officer and has held many other legal positions. He joined our firm at a retreat to discuss the future practice of law. Some VCBA board members may recall that Stuart gave a presentation to the VCBA board in 2009 during Prez Tony Strauss’ year.
Some food for thought. What will the practice of law be like in ten to 20 years? What changes have occurred over the past ten to 20 years in the legal practice? A futurist doesn’t necessarily predict the future but makes you think about how to be prepared for future expected and unexpected changes. The dominant eras in world history have commenced as follows: Agriculture (1880s), Industry (1920s), Services (1950s),
and Information (1976). According to futurist Graham Molitor, the coming eras will include Leisure Time (2015), Science (2100), New Atomic (2100), Megamaterial (2200), and New Space (2500). We won’t be around to see if he’s correct, but looking into the past and near future may help shape our decision making. The key seems to be that the “most adaptable” in any field will survive. As to the law firm of the future, Stuart provided us with this quote from Tony Girling, Past President of England and Wales Bar Association:
“Law Firm of Future:
The computer is there to provide legal services.
The dog is there to keep the lawyer away from the computer.
The man is there to feed the dog.”
It’s A Small World After All. My October article featured Chief Justice William Waste, who was assigned State Bar Number “1,” In the article I also noted the bar numbers of Erle Stanley Gardner and H. Frank Orr (the grandfather of my law partner John Orr). Upon reading the article, John walked into my office and told me that his son Nick was a roommate at Thacher with William Waste’s grandson! (I don’t make up this stuff, I just write about it.)
So Long and Good Night. It has been an honor to serve as your VCBA President in 2011. My thanks to the VCBA Board and all our sections, affiliates and committees. I think we accomplished a lot and left the campsite in a little better condition than when we found it. My special thanks to the VCBA staff of Alice Duran, Alex Varela-Guerra, Celene Valenzuela, Verna Kagan and Steve Henderson for all their time, effort and support. We have lined up, in batting order, as future bar presidents: Dien Le (2012), Joel Mark (2013) and Laura Bartels (2014). So, I think we are in good hands.