Abhi Shah ’06 was a junior at Indianapolis’s Lawrence North High School when he first visited Wabash, but he wasn’t here for a tour of campus. Shah was going to court.
A student of Lawrence North government teacher Ron Klene, Shah watched the finals of the College’s Moot Court competition in preparation for his own school’s version of the event that spring. But he was so impressed by what he saw that, a year later, he enrolled at Wabash. And this past October, the sophomore earned a spot in the finals of the College’s competition.
It was a proud moment for Klene, who has staged his own Moot Court for 18 years. When he heard about the Wabash event three years ago, he contacted President Ford and speech professor David Timmerman and began forging a Wabash/Lawrence partnership where high school students observe the College’s Moot Court finals in the fall and Wabash students and alumni attorneys serve as judges for Klene’s Moot Court in the spring.
Klene was honored for his efforts by the College’s Pre-Law Society this fall, as was Moot Court alumni organizer Matt Griffith ’89. A driving force behind the event for the past 10 years, Griffith has shepherded a strong partnership between alumni, faculty, and students that continues to strengthen students’ critical thinking and speaking skills.