Schauermann Thayer attorneys Scott Staples and Ben Melnick recently had the pleasure of spending a few hours with a team of students from a local home school cooperative, advising the group ahead of its upcoming appearance in a mock trial competition being held at the Clark County Courthouse.

 We like to do anything we can to help students with an interest in the law, and particularly in trial work. While Mr. Staples was more than happy to give some pointers on evidentiary issues and witness examination techniques that carry across many areas of law, he readily acknowledged (having worked as a civil attorney handling personal injury cases and trials for his entire career) that he lacked any meaningful experience in criminal law. The law problem the students were charged with tacking: a murder trial.

Enter Mr. Melnick to save the day. Ben's past experience as a criminal defense attorney proved to be an invaluable resource in working through some of the particulars of the problem, and saved Mr. Staples from many sheepish answers beginning with “I'm not really sure….”

We hope these young people got something out of our time together- we certainly did, and we wish them all the best at the upcoming competition.