In his State of the Judiciary remarks last year, Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson pointed to the decline in civics education over the past few decades as one of the causes of increasing rancor in political discourse and distrust in government – including in the courts. He challenged us to combat that decline, noting that, being apolitical, we “are perhaps the branch of government best suited to do so.” I can think of no better expression of civic education and engagement than the work undertaken by one of my esteemed colleagues at the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, Justice Stephen K. Lindley, in mentoring a team of high school students from the city of Rochester for participation in a statewide mock trial program.

To explain, the New York State High School Mock Trial Program is a wonderful program resulting from the joint efforts of The New York Bar Foundation, the New York State Bar Association, and the Law, Youth and Citizenship Program. Steve helped judge the competition and, in doing so, observed that the city of Rochester schools failed to field a team. As a result, only a limited number of students of color participated in the mock trial competition from Monroe County. Steve reached out to our court’s diversity committee to help change that, a process that began with visiting schools to talk directly to the students about the competition, generate interest, and recruit competitors.