Participating in conversations around the dinner table about law with his parents really paid off for Cooperstown Central School senior Nick Coccoma.

Coccoma took the Liberty Bell Award at Law Day, held yesterday at the Otsego County Courthouse, as his father, Judge Michael Coccoma, looked on from the bench.

He largely credits his parents for the success.

"I learned about law by hearing them talk about it," he said. Coccoma, who plans to attend Holy Cross in the fall, isn't sure yet whether he'll take up the family vocation.

He may have learned a lot during dinner, but Coccoma is also a young man with ideas of his own. He described the panel interview process with the eleven other student nominees.

"I enjoyed the panel discussion," he said. "They asked us if we could travel forward in time, what we thought it would be like. I said it seemed like there would be extraordinary advances in technology, science and medicine, but that human nature would still be the same. It's been the same from the time of the ancient Greeks until now."

His father's pride was most evident when he shook hands with his son following a series of photographs and interviews.

"I'm very happy for him," said Coccoma. "He's a terrific kid and he's made a habit of reading American history. He's the son of lawyers. He can't help but overhear conversations about the law."

Third place winner Alexis Saba of Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School agreed that the interview process was interesting.

"They asked us what superpower we'd most like to have," she said. "I said I'd like to fly, because you can see the world so easily and go to places you couldn't otherwise see."

Saba is the creative force behind the Old School Cafe in Cherry Valley, where many young people spend their weekend evenings. She won the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for this endeavor. Saba plans to practice environmental law and has not yet chosen a university.

Dennis McCabe, assistant attorney general, said the students wrote an essay about American Taliban member John Walker Lindh.

"This day is about the celebration of freedom," McCabe said, "to assure equal justice for all. Today, attorney general Eliot Spitzer will talk about the betrayals of trust we've faced as a nation since last year's Law Day."

The Enron scandal was cited as one example, as was the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

"The challenge is for law enforcement to rise to the occasion and hold betrayers of trust accountable. Systematic changes have to be made to prevent future abuses. This will fall to current and future leaders, like the ones we are honoring here today," McCabe said, gesturing towards the students.

Marissa Welsh from Milford Central School and Ashley Steere of Richfield Springs Central School were also nominees.