Instructors & Counselors
Learn from the people who build champions. At MTI, you're taught by UCLA faculty and staff with extensive litigation and trial experience, alongside members and alumni of Mock Trial at UCLA.
Your Instructors
Lead Instructor: Professor Gonzalo Freixes
A California attorney and former Associate Dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Professor Freixes has been the academic advisor and director of Mock Trial at UCLA since 1998. He led the team to national championships in 2004, 2005, 2011, and 2014, and has been MTI's lead instructor since 2004.
Instructor: Elizabeth Smiley
Elizabeth Smiley has been a trial attorney in Los Angeles for nearly a decade and is a former collegiate and law-school mock trial competitor. She has coached at UCLA since 2017, and in 2023, her first year as head coach, she led the team to its fifth national championship. She is a Director on the Board of the American Mock Trial Association.
Witness Specialist: Andrew Moon
Andrew Moon graduated from UCLA with a degree in Psychology. During his time at UCLA, he competed as a witness on UCLA's A team. Now an elementary music teacher, he has coached the top witnesses in the nation since 2023. A brilliant joke writer and character developer, he adds his patented magic to every witness he works with.
Your Counselors: Mock Trial at UCLA
Your counselors are members and alumni of Mock Trial at UCLA. They've competed at the highest level of college mock trial, and they know exactly what it takes to get there.
Coaches in the workshop: each team of 10–13 students works with its own counselors all week.
Mentors all week: in person, at least one counselor for every 10 students.
Whether this is your first mock trial or you're already competing, your coaches meet you where you are. Beginners learn the fundamentals step by step; experienced competitors are pushed on strategy, case theory, and witness control. With more than 20 years of running MTI, we know how to make one week count.
