MBA Insider's Blog

UCLA WINS 2011 NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MOCK TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP

UCLA’s undergraduate mock trial team powered past New York University to win the 2011 National Collegiate Mock Trial Championship in Des Moines, Iowa on April 17, 2011.  The Bruins also won the national title in 2004 and 2005, making this UCLA’s third championship title.

The Mock Trial competition is sponsored by the American Mock Trial Association and featured almost 600 teams from colleges & universities across the United States.  After Regional Tournaments around the nation, the top 48 teams competed in Des Moines (in two divisions) for the right to compete in the championship round.  UCLA’s Team 1493 won their division with a 6-2 record after beating Bowling Green, Georgetown, Harvard and Virginia, solidifying their spot in the final round.  They then competed against NYU (the 2010 National Champions) in front of five judges from the Iowa Supreme, Appellate, Federal and Trial Courts and won the championship with a decisive 4-1 victory.

 The UCLA Mock Trial program is sponsored by the UCLA Anderson School of Management Undergraduate Accounting Program.  Gonzalo Freixes, Associate Dean of Professional MBA Programs, teaches Business Law at UCLA Anderson and has served as the faculty sponsor and attorney coach for the UCLA teams for the last 11 years.  UCLA Mock Trial is composed of 40 students who make up the four competitive teams, each of which competes at the Western Regional Tournament in Los Angeles. Team 1493 won the Los Angeles Regional Tournament with a perfect record of 8-0, and had a record of 7-1 at the Western Regional Tournament in Irvine.

 In competitions, the students present the Plaintiff or Defense side of a criminal or civil case against another school.  Each side presents an opening statement, direct & cross examination of three witnesses and a closing argument.  Real judges and attorneys score and preside over the rounds and award points for student attorney and witness performances.  Student attorneys must learn how to examine witnesses, introduce exhibits into evidence, argue evidentiary objections, argue the law, and present the facts of the case.  Students also portray the witness roles.  The UCLA attorney students this year presented their case with exceptional poise, effective examination techniques, and a profound knowledge of objections while the student witnesses regaled audiences and judges with credible and entertaining testimony.  Students must master legal analysis, oral presentation & argument, poise, teamwork and effective questioning to succeed.

The winning team featured Jake Perkowski and James Caress as captains.  Other student attorneys were Amanda Mundell, Alexander Hill and Brandon Hughes.  Iain Lampert, Carol McBirney and Megan Timpane portrayed student witnesses.  Carol has an Anderson connection as a Senior Clerk at the Fully Employed MBA Program at UCLA Anderson.  Amanda Mundell received an All-American witness award (these awards are given to the top 10 student-witnesses competing).  The team was coached by UCLA Alumnus Nathan Smith, with help from Keith Fichtelman, Stephen Borello and Michael Kelly.  While many of our students end up going to law school, some do pursue their MBA degrees.  We have two former championship tournament competitors from the UCLA Mock Trial program pursuing their MBA degrees at UCLA Anderson: Peri Baker (FEMBA Class of 2012) and Marissa Levi (incoming MBA Class of 2013).

For further information about the UCLA Mock Trial Program or the 2011 Championship victory, please contact:

Prof. Gonzalo Freixes               gonzalo.freixes@anderson.ucla.edu or 661-878-2401

Jake Perkowski                        jakeperkowski@gmail.com or 949-683-6710

James Caress                           jlwc91@gmail.com or 831-578-2021

American Mock Trial Assoc.       www.collegemocktrial.org or (515) 283-0803

Digital photographs of the winning team or contact information about remaining student participants are also available upon request.

About UCLA Anderson School of Management

Celebrating 75 years of Business Beyond Usual, UCLA Anderson School of Management is regarded among the leading business schools in the world. UCLA Anderson faculty members are globally renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Each year, UCLA Anderson provides a distinctive approach to management education to more than 1,800 students enrolled in its MBA, Fully-Employed MBA, Executive MBA, UCLA-NUS Global Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, doctoral and executive education programs. Combining highly selective admissions, varied and innovative learning programs, and a world-wide network of 37,000 alumni, UCLA Anderson develops and prepares global leaders. 

UCLA Anderson Spotlight: From LA to the Rainforest - AMR Project Provides Unique Consulting Experience

When Deborah Yim applied to UCLA Anderson’s MBA program, she knew that hands-on learning was a big feature of the academic experience. Her plan was to transition from accounting to consulting after graduation so the more real-world experience she could gain in her new field the better. She particularly looked forward to the Applied Management Research Program (AMR) in which second-year MBA students can work on consulting projects for actual clients.

However, when she learned that her AMR project would be for Conservation International to help save the Amazon Rainforest, she was blown away. She had never expected to have an opportunity to work on such a unique consulting project much less conduct research in Suriname, but that is exactly where the AMR took her. Now that her project is wrapping up, we asked Yim to tell us about her AMR experience. Here’s what she said:

“Conservation International gave our AMR team a fairly broad question related to tourism in Suriname, which is a small country above Brazil mostly comprised of untouched rainforest. It wanted to know if tourism could provide the country with an alternative lucrative industry in place of ones such as mining that would be destructive to the rainforest. 

“Since there is hardly any information available on Suriname on the Internet, we were fortunate that we had the opportunity to visit the country for on-the-ground research. During our team’s visits, we conducted in-person interviews, studied the current infrastructure, and even tested out tourism products such as hotels and tours. We then used our data to do a value chain analysis as well as a comparative analysis to other countries like Belize and Costa Rica.

“During my last visit, we presented our findings that tourism could be a sustainable source of revenue, but that it’s very early and they have a lot to work on. This confirmed what many involved in the tourism industry in Suriname have long believed, but now they have data from our project to back it up.

“My AMR project has been a unique opportunity to not only gain consulting experience for a real client, but to apply my business skills in such an interesting and remote setting. The project really encouraged independent, out-of-the box thinking. We pulled from various aspects of our classes into this project, making it a different and effective way of learning.

“It definitely helped me achieve my goal of gaining a broader business education to transition into consulting – I’ll be working in M&A consulting for Ernst & Young after graduation.”

- MBA Admissions and Financial Aid

UCLA Anderson Spotlight: Women’s Business Connection Club President Sees Growth Opportunities

An associate consultant at a marketing firm in Los Angeles, Lindsey Walter had a unique insight into the culture at UCLA Anderson. Because her company exclusively recruited Anderson MBA students for its Los Angeles office, she got to know plenty of alumni and liked what they had to say about the school.

At the time, she was considering pursuing an MBA herself in order to move to the next level in her career, improve her communication and leadership skills, and round out her understanding of other business functions. Having heard all about Anderson’s entrepreneurial, collaborative, and student-driven environment from her coworkers, she knew it would be an ideal school for her.

When she arrived at UCLA Anderson, Walter was happy to discover the Women’s Business Connection Club, which organizes professional, social, and personal identity activities and programs.  “I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet more female students from all of the programs at Anderson as well as faculty and alumnae,” she says.

Signing up for the club’s Mentor Program, Walter’s assigned “buddy” happened to be the club’s president who not only encouraged her to become more involved with the club, but also to run for president when her term ended. Walter was excited by the idea, as she thought it would be a great opportunity to develop her communication and leadership skills as well as to help the club grow its presence on campus.

Walter, who was recently elected as the club’s president, is now working on implementing additional career events, increasing interactions with UCLA undergraduate students, conducting more community outreach programs, and organizing health-related events to benefit women’s causes. She also wants to ramp up the program that matches local alumnae with club members.

“Being involved in the Women’s Business Connection Club has really strengthened my relationships with other females on campus,” says Walter. “It’s very valuable to be able to get to know other women students, faculty and alumnae and build stronger connections with everyone. Having the opportunity to lead this club is a great example of the collaborative and student-driven environment that attracted me to Anderson in the first place.”

- MBA Admissions and Financial Aid

Round III is a Great Time to Apply!

Prospective MBA applicants, Round III is a terrific time to apply to the UCLA Anderson full time MBA program.  The final deadline for the entering fall 2011 class is 9:00pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) on April 13, 2011.  You will need to submit all materials by the deadline including the TOEFL/IELTS if necessary, and the GMAT so you can self report your unofficial scores on your application. 

There are still plenty of seats for Round III applicants so spell check those essays and make sure your application is complete before you "submit!"  Good luck!

UCLA Anderson Spotlight: MBA Program Helps Platoon Commander Transition from Military to Consulting

As a platoon commander in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, leadership was a big part of Jonathan Um’s day-to-day job. Heading his platoon both in the U.S. and in Iraq, he analyzed intelligence reports, acted on limited information, and worked with parties having different agendas. During that time, he became increasingly interested in gaining a more formal understanding of the management process and challenges of leadership. So when his military service ended in 2009, pursuing an MBA was the next logical step in his career path.

“UCLA Anderson was a great fit not only because my wife and I wanted to stay in southern California, but because it has such a strong focus on management and leadership principles,” he says. “I already had a law degree, but being a lawyer is very different from being an executive and I knew when I finished my military service that I wanted to go into management. The lessons I learned in the military have turned out to be very applicable to the MBA program where we work with data and facts to support business cases and projects. I’ve found a lot of commonalities between what I did in Iraq and in the military in general and business.”

Um, a native of New York, adds that he’s found UCLA to have a very military-friendly campus. “There are quite a few veterans in the MBA program and one student is actually still on active duty in the U.S. Airforce. The administration really supports veterans with things like the Yellow Ribbon Program and a special boot camp for veteran entrepreneurs in the summer. Plus, there’s a pretty big veteran military community in southern California so we have a big network.”

As for the transition from military life to school, Um says that the rigor of the first year was very challenging. “I was surprised because there is a conception about business school that it’s all about networking and transitioning into your next career. It is about those things, but UCLA Anderson gives you much more. We learned so many concrete tools through the curriculum that even after the first year, I felt like I was thinking differently and approaching problems differently.”

He notes that a highlight of his second year has been working on an independent study project with Prof. Jeffrey Dubin for the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles. “We studied the market for electric vehicles in LA, conducting a survey, collecting data, and presenting our results to the client. It’s been a great learning experience using the actual tools we learned from the curriculum, building models, and applying techniques for real-life business issues.”

Um, who plans to work for McKinsey as a consultant after graduation, credits his UCLA Anderson education with opening the door to the business world. “Without UCLA Anderson, I wouldn’t have built this network or had these learning and business opportunities. I’ve really boosted my career here – there was no better place I could have gone to start this next phase of my career,” he says.

- MBA Admissions and Financial Aid

UCLA Anderson School of Management