Empire Philadelphia is scheduled for September 28-30. You can volunteer for one trial or several—it is up to you. Please carefully review the below message prior to registering.
Your Role
We are looking for volunteers to serve as either a presiding judge or a scoring juror.
- A juror sits in the (mock) jury box, scores the trial, and provides students with written and verbal feedback;
- A presiding judge sits on the bench, conducts the proceedings, questions the advocates during the oral argument, likely scores the trial (but may not), and provides students with written and verbal feedback. Serving as a presiding judge requires more preparation time than a juror—there are additional materials to review.
If you'd like to preside, we will try our best to honor your preference. But we typically have more people wish to preside than we have spots available. We thank you, in advance, for your understanding and dedication to our students.
CLE Credit
There are two ways that attorneys can earn CLE credits at Empire Philly:
1) Ethics Workshop (1 credit per session)
- PA, DE, NJ & NY lawyers are eligible for credit
- Attend one ethics seminar before trial (descriptions here)
- To receive credit, a volunteer must be physically present for the entirety of the CLE presentation and volunteer for, at least, one mock trial round
- You are free to attend all four (4) CLE sessions, even if you are volunteering for just one trial
2) Skills Credit (3 credit maximum)
- NY & NJ lawyers are only eligible for this category of credit; PA & DE lawyers may not obtain skills credit for judging mock trial
- The credits are non-transitional and in the category of skills
- You may only earn a maximum of 3 credits, regardless of how many trials you judge
All CLE certificates are issued by our Eagle Cove Bar Services, Empire's CLE partner.