Monday Morning Mock Trial!

“Good morning, folks,” Garrison said as he strolled into the intern conference room right at 9 AM. “Big morning, are we ready to get moving?”

“Absolutely, sir,” Sabrina said. “We worked through the weekend to make sure we’re more than ready, so unless you’re about to rug pull us as a teaching moment, we’re ready to go.”

Garrison smirked a little and shook his head. “No, no rug pull,” he said. “Though that’s a good idea for next year. Maybe not after weeks of prep, but a few days couldn’t hurt. Alright. Let me swing by my office and I’ll meet you four at the elevators.”

“Thanks, sir,” you said and he nodded and left. You turned to the others. “Alright, this is happening. Gemma, since it’ll look weird to do it beforehand, break a leg on the Opening Statement. You’re going to kick some ass.”

“Slowly and methodically, like beating a dead horse,” Sabrina chuckled.

“Thanks, love,” Gemma said to you, then smirked at Sabrina. Gemma’s personality definitely leaned more towards a fiery, impassioned speech than the even, passionless running of the facts that Garrison had taught the four of you about when you observed his case in court. You were all still good with the decision to have her lead off though - she was well-spoken, would provide a variation on the expected norm due to her accent, and was prepared to go the distance.

She was also, not that Eric would know, pretty relaxed. While there hadn’t been any sex between you, Gemma and Sabrina the night before, Gemma had woken up extra early and been pacing in your apartment quietly going through the details from her opening statement, murmuring them over and over. When you and Sabrina had woken up and realised where she was, you’d brought her back to bed and then loved on her, trading off eating her out and making out with her. She’d come several times in the hour before the alarm went off and you all really did have to get up, and she admitted that most of her anxiety and nerves had drifted away.

You, Eric, Gemma and Sabrina got your bags and files together and went to the elevators. Garrison joined you a few minutes later.

“Remember,” he said. “I can’t give you any tips or critiques until the whole thing is over. The other side is under the same rules. It’s just you against them. But you are representing the Firm and I expect you to live up to the opportunity. You’ve done great work so far this summer, now it’s time to show what you’re made of.”

“Way to not put us under any more pressure, sir,” Eric said with a little smirk.

“Well, I had to find some way to do it,” Garrison chuckled. “If this were a real case, you’d have the looming threat of your boss or clients being pissed off if you lose, and knowing you cost them hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.”

You reached the ground floor and headed through the lobby.

“Good luck, you guys,” Becks called from her desk. “Knock ‘em dead.”

You, Gemma and Sabrina all waved your thanks to her and followed Garrison out of the building.

“She talks to you guys?” Eric asked you quietly. “She always just sort of ignores me.”

“Do you get her coffee on the coffee runs?” you asked.

“Why would I do that?”

You gave him a look.

“Ooooh,” he said.

Garrison had arranged for a driver with a big Escalade since there were five of us, and you piled into the blacked-out vehicle and were off. After all the Ubers and Lyfts you had taken through the city, having a private driver with a semi-luxury vehicle was definitely the best ride you’d had.

“So, where are we headed, sir?” Gemma asked. “Is the other firm hosting?”

“No, we got somewhere a little more interesting,” Garrison said, turning from the front passenger seat to glance back at you all. “Don’t worry, you won’t be out of your depth.”

“Why does that sound ominous?” Sabrina murmured to you in the back seat. She was wearing slacks, whereas Gemma was wearing a skirt, so she’d offered the blonde the bucket seat.

“Because he’s being mysterious, and messing with us on purpose,” you murmured back.

It was an almost twenty-minute drive due to the Monday morning traffic, and you ended up just outside the core of downtown in the older part of the city before the driver pulled up in front of a big, old stone building.

“A church?” Eric asked.

“Not a church,” Garrison said as you all piled back out of the car, double-checking you weren’t leaving anything behind as you went. “Welcome to the Old Courthouse. This was the original court building for the city, built in 1856. After a fire in 1873, it was rebuilt that same year, and then as the city grew it became too small and the spot where the current courthouse is was developed in the 1920s and has been expanded ever since. This building was donated by the city to the local University, and it’s been all sorts of things since then but in the last twenty years, it’s mostly been a music and arts venue and a lecture hall. There’s a lot of history in this building, folks. Men were sentenced to **** for crimes like cattle rustling, **** and ****. Civil cases that set the foundations of the modern city around us were argued here, not to mention hosting several important debates and protests around the women's suffrage movement in the US.”

“Really just piling it on, huh, sir?” Sabrina deadpanned.

Garrison laughed and shook his head. “Just telling you the facts. Come on, we’re a little bit early. Let’s get you settled in.”

You followed Garrison in the front doors, which really did look like an old Catholic or Anglican church from the outside. Through the big double doors was a wide but shallow lobby with old, stone-tiled floors polished smooth with age and use, and the exposed stonework of the building that raised up towards a vaulted ceiling above continued to make you think of churches. That was where the ‘church’ feeling ended though. On the right end of the lobby was a three-window kiosk area that must have been a mini box office though it was dark and closed at the moment, and on the left end there was what looked like a booth for merch sales. Two big sets of double doors dominated the wall opposite the entry, a covered sign announcing that the hall was booked for a ‘private party’ for the next three days. Otherwise, the walls were covered in posters for musical acts, plays and lecture series. No two posters were alike, and there was a sense of wild history just right there in the lobby - just not legal history.

Garrison walked you across the lobby and opened one set of the double doors and you entered into the main hall.

“Wow,” you said, and could hear the others echo your thoughts. “This is where we’re arguing the case?”

“It is,” Garrison said, smirking again.

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