Set designer builds mock courtroom

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. – Paul Owen has designed vampire lairs, dead planets and Santaland. So a request for a courtroom seemed fairly mundane.\nAll Owen, the scenic designer at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, had to do was tap into his brief stint on jury duty to fulfill a request from the Stites & Harbison law firm last spring.\nBut it’s not his handiwork – a jury box, tables for the prosecutors and defense attorneys, even an American flag standing behind the judge’s bench – that’s special.\nIt’s the locale: a former file room at Stites & Harbison’s offices in Jeffersonville, Ind.\nWith 280 attorneys spread across five states, attorney John Tate, a partner in the firm, was looking for a way to get courtroom experience for his young lawyers, an increasingly difficult task given the declining numbers of civil and criminal jury trials each year.\n“This is a way of combating the vanishing trial syndrome,” Tate said. “I needed a courtroom that looked expensive, but isn’t.”\nSo he turned to Actors Theatre, where he is a member of the board of directors, hiring it to build a $30,000 realistic, high-tech courtroom with a movable set that would be able to re-create different court settings, such as an appeals court, for example, where three judges preside.\n“It was an unusual request, but at the same time, it was sort of obvious,” said Jennifer Bielstein, managing director at Actors Theatre. “We create ... realistic environments to help portray something.”\nSeth Andersen, executive vice president of the American Judicature Society, said having a physical environment rather than just a conference room was more helpful for new lawyers.\n“It helps get lawyers in the right frame of mind,” he said.\nAnd it’s good preparation for the witnesses as well, said Charles Middleton, managing director of the Louisville law firm Middleton Reutlinger, which also has a mock courtroom.