Hunton & Williams LLP Hosts 6th Annual Elementary School Mock Trial

LOS ANGELES — May 15, 2013 — The Los Angeles office of law firm Hunton & Williams LLP is playing host on Wednesday, May 15, to a class of 24 students from Madison Elementary School in South Gate, Calif., with a mock trial based around the well-known children’s story, “The Three Little Pigs.” This is the sixth year the firm has participated in this program and the fourth year the program has included students from Madison Elementary.

Los Angeles Office Managing Partner Ann Marie Mortimer will act as judge with associate Alex Young and partner Roland Juarez serving as defense attorney and plaintiff's attorney. Associate Emily Aldrich will play the defendant, senior attorney Morgan Evans will play the plaintiff, and paralegal Bill Powell will act the part of the bailiff. There will also be one witness called to testify, played by associate SuedyTorabi, and a surprise expert witness for the defense, played by associate Julieta Stepanyan. The Madison Elementary students will sit as jurors in the case.

"We enjoy doing this every year," said Mortimer. "The enthusiasm of the students at Madison Elementary and lawyers and staff at Hunton & Williams is tremendous. I love seeing how they become connected to the law."

Since the start of the school year last September, Hunton & Williams lawyers and staff have been pen pals with Kimberly Klopfer's 5th grade class at the Los Angeles Unified School District K-5 School. The program was designed to give the lawyers an opportunity to team up with a local elementary school where students have little exposure to the professional legal industry. The student population at Madison Elementary is 99 percent Latino, and 49 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

The students will have an opportunity to meet with their pen pals and serve as jurors in the mock trial. The students have been very enthusiastic about the program, enclosing pictures in their letters and inviting their pen pals to visit their classroom, where they participated in several wide-ranging question and answer sessions. The pen pal correspondence culminates on Wednesday with a field trip, pizza party and mock trial at the Hunton & Williams office in downtown Los Angeles.

"This is an important part of experiential learning," said Ms. Klopfer. "They are learning persuasive writing skills this year so the mock trial experience fits right into the curriculum."

Hunton & Williams lawyers and staff are committed to the program, "because it allows us to give back to the community, where there is a real need," said Juarez.

Hunton & Williams continues to lead the way in community service in the United States, and the firm's tradition of pro bono service is well recognized. Hunton & Williams, one of only nine firms selected to The National Law Journal's Pro Bono "Hot List" 2013, continues to devote significant time in serving the community throughout the United States. During the firm's last four fiscal years, 100 percent of the firm's full-time US lawyers worked on pro bono projects. The firm maintains three neighborhood offices — in Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia, and in Atlanta — solely dedicated to pro bono services for low-income individuals and a full-time staffed Pro Bono Fellows program.

About Hunton & Williams LLP

Hunton & Williams LLP provides legal services to corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals, as well as to a broad array of other entities. Since our establishment more than a century ago, Hunton & Williams has grown to more than 800 lawyers serving clients in 100 countries from 19 offices around the world. While our practice has a strong industry focus on energy, financial services and life sciences, our experience extends to more than 100 separate practice areas, including bankruptcy and creditors' rights, commercial litigation, corporate transactions and securities law, intellectual property, international and government relations, regulatory law, products liability, and privacy and data security.