Clark State students enrolled in the Realtime Court Reporting program will participate in mock depositions at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. The mock depositions, with four law students and three court-reporting students, will be held Monday, March 30.
“The mock depositions offer the students a real-life scenario without having any punitive consequences for not performing well,” said Robyn M. Hennigan, assistant professor and program coordinator Realtime Court Reporting. “The students are expected to run the depositions, write a verbatim record and produce the transcripts for the third-year law students just as if they were professional reporters reporting actual depositions.”
Participating students from Clark State must write at speeds of 160 or higher, have completed the Realtime Business Practices course and be nearing completion of the program.
“Professor Elizabeth Cooke from Ohio State contacted me to discuss the possibility of creating the partnership,” said Hennigan. “We met over lunch, discussed the particulars and the rest is history.”
Hennigan said the partnership is an excellent opportunity for both Clark State students and the third-year law students to apply their education in a safe, realistic setting and learn from one another. “The Realtime Court Reporting students benefit by having to complete the process from A to Z as if they were the professional reporter in the deposition,” she said. “And the law students benefit by learning to create an effective record and see how they actually did when they receive the deposition transcripts, helping them to hone their skills prior to entering the professional legal arena.”
Clark State student Heather Piper is participating in the mock depositions for the second time. She is also the recipient of the 2015 Rosalie Stevens Student Scholarship from the Ohio Court Reporters Association. She said the mock depositions have been beneficial in helping her to hone her skills. “It has been one of the very best experiences in terms of preparing me for what the working environment is really like,” she said. “We do everything a working reporter does, from swearing in witnesses to taking down the deposition, to editing and delivering a final transcript of the proceedings.”
Hennigan said Clark State students are the only court reporting students partnered with The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law to do the mock depositions, and they plan to continue the program.