The Brandeis University Mock Trial Association held its first invitational tournament this weekend, attracting participants from Harvard, Yale, the United States Coast Guard Academy, the University of Hartford and elsewhere.The group decided to host the invitational to gain more recognition in the Mock Trial world, BUMTA Vice President Jon Krisch '07 said.

"We wanted to create our own niche, a tournament with friendly fun and hospitality," Krisch said.

The students played the roles of attorneys and witnesses as they pled their case to law professionals and students acting as judges during four rounds on Friday and Saturday.

In the awards ceremony, trophies were awarded to the tournament's top five attorneys, witnesses and teams. Krisch said Harvard and Yale won a disproportionate number of those trophies, but Brandeis students Hannelore Sklar '10 and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick '09 tied for fourth place in the witness category.

During each round, three students acting as attorneys served on both the plaintiff and defendant's counsels, with three witnesses on each side. Opening statements were given, followed by witness examination, cross-examination and closing statements.

BUMTA held multiple rounds to give each team a chance to compete with teams of equal level. The pairings for the first round were random and based on the scores from the previous round for the rest of the tournament.

The participants argued Jeffries v. Polk County Police Department, a case involving the alleged excessive use of police force against a burglar during a robbery.

Participants said they enjoyed the invitational and thought it went smoothly. "I was happily surprised with how it went and consider these events good practice for law school," Kait O'Leary '09 said.

"Everyone seemed happy. There were no complaints," Krisch said.

Preparations for the invitational began last summer, Krisch said. He gave much of the credit to the group's tournament director, Wendi Safran '07.

"Wendi did it all. She was a machine," he said.