La Reina Senior Among Top Student-Attorneys

Using what she called a “flexible web of arguments” that turned on evidence presented by opposing counsel, La Reina High School senior Kelly Byrd of Thousand Oaks was named one of the best student-attorneys in the state Mock Trial competition Sunday in Sacramento.

The 17-year-old captain of the defense team studied with assistant district attorneys as well as law professors, and ranked among the top eight of 180 competitors from around the state.

“I started over the summer working on objections and basic theories. But the real work began in October,” said Kelly, who plans to major in English following graduation from the all-girls private school in June. After that, she will likely head to law school, she said.

Kelly achieved perfect scores in two separate closing arguments in a 10-year-old case involving computer sabotage and a student accused of slandering a teacher who gave her a poor grade.

“I summed up everything that happened in the case. I had a flexible web of arguments and things I was going to say that changed as the evidence came out. I had to adapt,” she said.

This is the fourth year in a row and the sixth time in 11 years that a team from La Reina High has competed in the state finals, sponsored by the nonprofit Constitutional Rights Foundation.

Redlands High School in San Bernardino County placed first and Hillsdale High School in San Mateo County placed second. La Reina High did not place among the top eight teams this time, said Eileen De Bruno, faculty coach.

Thirty teams from 29 counties participated in this year’s event.

“We were the only private school and the only all-girls school,” said De Bruno, the school librarian.

“Just getting up here is a major accomplishment. The competition up here is very stiff, and has gotten more and more difficult,” she said.

The school holds pre-competition workouts with practicing attorneys and professors.

“My two major role models were the attorney coaches that have worked with us,” Kelly said. They were Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn and Pepperdine University law professor Mark Scarberry.