Academic Co-Curriculars

The goals of the Mock Trial program are to expose the students to the U.S. Constitution, legal research, trial techniques, oral argumentation and to nurture any passion they may have for a career in the law, rhetoric, public speaking, politics, or forensics. Students are coached by attorneys for their annual competition held in downtown Los Angeles every November. Students appear and present their pre-trial motions and case-in-chief in front of judges and attorneys from the greater L.A. area. The competition is county-wide. In addition, students in Mock Trial and the Introduction to Law class receive visits from multiple guest lecturers from every field of law throughout the academic year. Students are also eligible to apply for scholarships through the
Constitutional Rights Foundation, attend nationally ranked summer camps, and make lasting connections.

Recently, La Salle’s two Mock Trial captains, Matthew Toth and Makayla Martinez , attended UCLA’s week-long summer institute. They learned from the collegiate Mock Trial champions and competed with students from across the country in moot court. They also received college credit. Every year the LLAN (La Salle Lawyer Alumni Network) fundraises to send at least two students to the Mock Trial Institute at UCLA.We look forward to a competitive season!

Academic Decathlon is a UC-approved class which enables students to learn material outside of the typical educational milieu. They compete against other schools in our region in the hopes of advancing to further rounds. Our class is essentially divided into two semesters with two different competitions: Academic Decathlon and World Scholars Cup. While both are rigorous and demanding, they provide differing skill sets for our students and ultimately provide our students multiple chances for academic success.

La Salle has excelled at both competitions as the Lancers frequently garner over 90 AD medals per year. Similarly, our individuals and teams have won the Regional Round of the WSC five competitions in a row. Furthermore, one of our students won the individual title for the WSC Global Round at Prague and London in the past two years as he competed against over 800 other students. Lancer teams have finished in second place in the Tournament of Champions in the last two years as well. In the last six years, our Lancer scholars have advanced to and competed across the globe including Prague, Melbourne, The Hague, and London. Our program has enabled our students to be great American ambassadors as well as scholars and are looking forward to defending their Global title in Stockholm this year!