Closing arguments: Pacific Academy senior savors one last case with mock trial team she founded
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Linda Frazier struggled with English when she emigrated from China to the U.S. over a decade ago at the age of 7. And since both of her parents had backgrounds in STEM fields, few might have guessed she would discover a talent and passion for public speaking.
“I think I’m someone who likes things to be organized most of the time,” Frazier said in an interview, a few weeks ahead of this year’s mock trial competition hosted on Oct. 22 by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County. “Debate is the one place I really get to step out of my comfort zone … Even though you do prepare things, there are some parts you really can’t prepare for. And I think it’s so cool to adapt and practice your speaking skills.”
Friends, family and educators nurtured her development as an orator. She began arguing hypothetical cases as early as middle school with her school’s moot court, which is similar to mock trial for younger students.
By the time she entered her freshman year at Pacific Academy in Irvine, Frazier already knew she wanted to become a criminal defense attorney and, someday, a judge. But the school didn’t have a mock trial team, so she took it upon herself to create one.
“I’ve always taken leadership roles in group activities and group projects, but this was something completely different,” Frazier said. “For our mock trial team we have to pay a coach. And going to competition, that costs money too. All of these things to consider was so much for my ninth-grade brain.”
The fledgling team struggled at first, unable to field a full squad of 16 students in their first run in 2023. But over the course of her four years at Pacific they continued to recruit like-minded, argumentative youth. Frazier also helped start a moot trial team at the K-12 school, creating a pipeline for middle school students to transition into mock trial when they entered high school.
Frazier added that she couldn’t have done it alone.
“I had to learn to delegate responsibilities to others,” she said. “I had to trust people to want to get things done and care about this club as much as I did.”
Some of those who joined became club officers she grew to rely on and some of her closest friends. A few, like Frazier, spoke English as a second language and managed to find their voice in the courtroom, according to the Pacific senior’s mother, Susan Frazier.
“So many parents came to talk to Linda, some of them of international students,” Susan Frazier said. “They said ‘Oh my gosh, I have never seen my kids thrive so much and speaking in public in English … Some of these students were a little bit shy in school, but when they go to moot court or mock trial they have a role.”
Pacific’s team will be among over 50 arguing before the scrutiny of real judges and attorneys in this year’s mock trial competition. They will step into the shoes of prosecutors, defense, witnesses and bailiffs in the matter of the People vs. Martz, a case involving illegal street racing that was decided by a New York appellate court in 2020.
“They have to think critically, technically and quickly under pressure,” Pacific Academy Principal Keith Corpus said. “That just takes a lot of courage to go up there and be put on the spot.”
To prepare, Pacific’s team was granted special permission for a second year in a row to conduct their scrimmage last month on the second floor of the Old Orange County Courthouse. Those practice sessions may have been the first cases debated in the historic building in over 50 years, Linda Frazier said.
“The main staircase is where they filmed part of ‘Legally Blonde,’ one of my favorite movies, if you couldn’t guess,” she said. “You have no idea how much I drilled my teammates, like: ‘OK guys, do not touch anything. No horseplay!’”
She and her teammates spoke and gestured with gravitas as they delivered arguments before their team’s coach, Lex Vassilakis. But there were still plenty of giggles as they gave each other feedback on their delivery and demeanor.
The scrimmage and upcoming competition may be the last opportunity Frazier gets to practice what she loves with the the tight-knit group of colleagues she cultivated over the past four years.
“I’m president of a few other clubs but this one — don’t tell the other clubs — will always be super special to me because it’s the one I started and there were so many people participating,” she said. “It’s a hard thing to let go of, and I already feel nostalgic … The good thing is I can continue this in college, but it will never be the same.”
— Licas is a contributor to the Daily Pilot
