The Bench Brief

Update to Miami NAAC regional results

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:56:00 +0000

Well, as I feared, my post yesterday was indeed incorrect. As commenter John B. suggested, a second team from Oklahoma – and not WashU – was named as the fourth regional champion. The confusion apparently centered on a “missing” ballot in the round. As many of you know, the break rounds of the NAAC are determined by the team winning a majority of the ballots. If there are five judges, the team who wins three or more ballots wins the round. On the other hand, if the ballots are tied, it then goes to points (indeed, one of my own teams won its regional final this way, tying two ballots to two but winning on total points). Well, in the regional final between Oklahoma and WashU, on first tally, there were only four countable ballots (despite there being five judges in the room). On points, WashU was ahead, and was therefore declared the winner. At some point, however, a fifth ballot surfaced, which was in favor of Oklahoma. Based on the new ballot, the previous announcement was reversed.

I know the folks who run the ABA NAAC well, and I’m certain there’s a good explanation for the confusion. But man oh man, do I ever feel for WashU’s team, who experienced the joy of thinking they had secured a regional championship, only to learn 30 minutes later that a lost ballot had mysteriously surfaced to sink their chances. On a larger level, I think this further goes to show the importance of transparency in administration of competitions. I’m sure the ABA isn’t thrilled about the confusion, but I’m likewise sure they’re happy that their transparency policy allowed this to come to light and be addressed. As for what happens in this case, we’ll have to wait and see – my hope is that WashU’s second squad will be invited to Chicago as a 25th team, which I think would eliminate any questions that either WashU or Oklahoma could raise…

Advancing teams from Boston and Miami NAAC regionals (I think)

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:25:00 +0000

And the field of 24 is complete: This weekend was the last of the three sets of regional competitions for the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Two weekends ago it started with Las Vegas and San Francisco; last weekend it was Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. My Miami contact (Prof. Sander Moody at Florida Coastal School of Law) said he had heard some rumblings that perhaps the initial announcement by the competition coordinators was incorrect, but that he's likewise confident his notes reflect the four correct regional champions. So, with that caveat noted, the final eight teams to punch their tickets to the national finals in Chicago next month are:

Boston Regional:
Emory University School of Law
South Texas College of Law (2 teams)
University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law

Miami Regional:
Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
University of Oklahoma Law Center
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (2 teams)

I'm dubbing this year the "year of the Double-Double," in part because I'm an enormous fan of the In-N-Out Burger, but more so because I doubt there's ever been a year with so many schools advancing two teams. Loyola Law School Los Angleles, Seton Hall University School of Law, Texas Tech University School of Law, and now South Texas and WashU are all sending both of their teams. Pretty amazing...

I'm also very proud of my fellow Texans -- Tech and South Texas will be joined in Chicago by Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, Baylor Law School, and University of Texas School of Law. In all, 7 of the 24 national finalists (nearly 30 percent) are from Texas schools. And if you throw in our neighbor OU, you'll see why I continuously argue that Texas is one of the most competitive advocacy regions in the country -- particularly at the National Moot Court Competition, where all those schools (from Texas and Oklahoma) have to battle it out for just two spots at the national finals.

Advancing teams from Brooklyn and D.C. NAAC regionals

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:33:00 +0000

Last week I posted on the eight regional champions from the Las Vegas and San Francisco regionals of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. This weekend featured the Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. regionals. Without further ado:

Brooklyn Regional:
Seton Hall University School of Law (2 teams)
Texas Tech University School of Law (2 teams)

Washington, D.C. Regional:
American University Washington College of Law
Baylor Law School
Liberty University School of Law
University of Baltimore School of Law

Advancing teams from Vegas and San Fran NAAC regionals

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Ahh, it's that time of year again -- the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition is underway. This weekend featured the first two of the competition's six regional tournaments in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Next weekend will see teams compete in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. The weekend after that the show goes to Boston and Miami.

I don't have any information on briefs or advocates (and won't until the regional rounds conclude, and even then, I won't post until after the whole shebang is over to protect the anonymity of the teams), but I do have the important info: Which teams have advanced to the national finals in Chicago in early April.

Las Vegas Regional:
Loyola Law School Los Angeles (2 teams)
Thomas M. Cooley Law School
University of Miami School of Law

San Fransisco Regional:
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
University of Texas School of Law

You may recall this post in December, where I rather half-assedly handicapped the "strength" of the four regionals based on a few different metrics. Regardless of three methods I employed, Vegas and San Fran came out as the "weakest" of the six regions, with only Chicago-Kent College of Law (Illinois Institute of Technology) and UC Hastings College of the Law as the real "powerhouse" programs in either region. Rather surprisingly though, neither school advanced a team to Chicago...

Make it three: Lewis & Clark wins again at Pace

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:47:00 +0000

Lewis & Clark continued to exert its dominance at the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition at Pace Law School this weekend, finishing first among a field of 84 teams. This marks the third straight Pace championship for Lewis & Clark, and its fourth since 2004. The University of Houston Law Center and University of Wyoming College of Law (which knocked out my Texas Tech team in the quarterfinals) were the two other finalists (each round consists of three teams, as the problem is three-sided).

Semifinal finishes were enjoyed by UC Hastings College of the Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, University of Mississippi School of Law, University of Miami School of Law, Tulane University Law School, and UCLA School of Law.

Hastings won the overall Best Brief award, while Leah Branch of The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law won Best Oralist honors.

Full results are here.

Arkansas razors Mississippi College's back

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:08:00 +0000

Congratulations to the University of Arkansas School of Law, which tonight won the title at the 60th annual National Moot Court Competition. Mississippi College took second place. Texas Tech University School of Law and Saint Louis University School of Law were the national semifinalists.

Seattle University School of Law claimed the Best Brief Award, while Allison Waldrip of Arkansas was named the Best Oralist.

NMCC semifinal results

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:51:00 +0000

Mississippi College (#1 seed) def. Texas Tech (#12 seed)
Arkansas (#6 seed) def. Saint Louis (#2 seed)

My Texas Tech team beat Mississippi College on orals, but by only one point. It wasn't enough to overcome the brief. Final round is at 8 p.m., EST. See my previous post for the webcasting address. Good luck to the finalists!

NMCC quarterfinal results

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:02:00 +0000

Mississippi College (#1 seed) def. Georgia (#9 seed)
Texas Tech (#12 seed) def. Washington (#4 seed)
Arkansas (#6 seed) def. Cleveland-Marshall (#14 seed)
Saint Louis (#2 seed) def. Faulkner (#10 seed)

So, the #1 and #2 are both still alive. My Texas Tech team has a difficult road to hoe, having to play Mississippi College and its monster brief score in the first semifinal match. The Arkansas/Saint Louis round is, for all practical purposes, even-steven on brief.

The semifinal rounds are at 4 p.m. EST; the final round is at 8 p.m. EST. Like last year, the final round will be webcast live. Go to http://www.nycbar.org/YoungLawyers/index.htm at 8 p.m. to watch...

NMCC octofinal results

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:50:00 +0000

Mississippi College (#1 seed) def. Wake Forest (#16 seed)
Georgia (#9 seed) def. San Francisco (#8 seed)
Texas Tech (#12 seed) def. Hamline (#5 seed)
Washington (#4 seed) def. Colorado (#13 seed)
Cleveland-Marshall (#14 seed) def. Chicago-Kent (#3 seed)
Arkansas (#6 seed) def. Case Western (#11 seed)
Faulkner (#14 seed) def. George Mason (#7 seed)
Saint Louis (#2 seed) def. South Texas (#15 seed)

It appears that Chicago-Kent's road to three-peat glory has reached a dead end...

Live blogging from the National Moot Court Competition

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

The national finals of the National Moot Court Competition kicked off yesterday in the Big Apple. After two preliminary rounds, the field of 28 is now down to the Sweet 16. The octofinals and semifinals are today, with the semis and national championship game on Thursday.

Two things of note: First, Chicago-Kent's bid for what would be a mind-boggling third-straight title is still alive. Second, the tournament's Best Brief winner, Seattle University School of Law, is already out. But the second-best brief score (which was just a quarter of a point behind Seattle's) IS still alive, in the form of #1 seed Mississippi College.

Without further ado, the top 16 teams, in order of their seeds:

1. Mississippi College School of Law
2. Saint Louis University School of Law
3. Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
4. University of Washington School of Law
5. Hamline University Law School
6. University of Arkansas School of Law
7. George Mason University School of Law
8. University of San Francisco School of Law
9. University of Georgia School of Law
10. Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law
11. Case Western Reserve University School of Law
12. Texas Tech University School of Law
13. University of Colorado Law School
14. Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
15. South Texas College of Law
16. Wake Forest University School of Law

John Marshall reigns supreme at UH MCNC

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:07:00 +0000

The second annual Moot Court National Championship concluded Saturday night with The John Marshall Law School standing tall above the other 15 invited schools. Launched last year by the University of Houston's Blakely Advocacy Institute as sort of a counterpart to NITA's mock trial Tournament of Champions, "The Championship" (as Blakely Director Jim Lawrence calls it) had nearly $8,000 in prize money to dole out. John Marshall took home $4,000 as champions. Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law won $2,000 as the tournament's runner-up. Florida Coastal School of Law and South Texas College of Law were the semifinalists.

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology received $1,000 for winning the Best Brief award; Danielle Ravencraft of the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University scored a cool grand for being named Best Oralist.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the tournament. For one, it's obvious that Professor Lawrence and his committee -- which was headed up by UH moot court alumni -- bent over backward to provide a great experience. They were constantly seeking input on what was good and what was bad, which shows they care about what they're doing and the future of the competition. The rounds took place at the federal district courthouse, which was only problematic to the extent there was a lot of confusion about what courtrooms we were arguing in. More importantly though, the level of competition was incredibly stout. I've commented that this past year's ABA NAAC national finals was the same way, but honestly, of the four teams we played, all were just as good as any team I saw in Chicago last year.

As I told Professor Lawrence, I would prefer that he run the competition "in the open" (or at least provide win-loss and point differential information as the competition progresses) like the NAAC and the National Moot Court Competition, but that's really my only complaint. Each team argues four preliminary rounds, which is just tremendous (it protects you from being stung by one rogue panel of judges). The ABA and NMCC finals both have just two preliminary rounds, which I think is at least one too few.

Also impressive was the symposium the law school hosted on Thursday, which was tied to the subject matter of the problem. It appeared as if only half or so of the teams showed up to the symposium, but it was very well done and a nice touch.

Anyway, congrats to everyone at Blakely for a well-run tournament -- having seen the outstanding level of competition, I'd say it absolutely deserves a seat at the table alongside the NAAC and NMCC in terms of competition prestige.

Texas Tech reclaims ABA Arbitration championship

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:59:00 +0000

I'm proud to report that Texas Tech won the national finals of the ABA Arbitration Competition, which took place January 22-23 in Orange County, California (Chapman University School of Law, last year's champion, played host). Like this year's Alamo Bowl, Tech defeated Michigan State University College of Law in the championship game. A second team from Texas Tech and Creighton University School of Law were the semifinalists.

Texas Tech last won the Arbitration crown two years ago, after losing in the national championship round in 2007.

Word of the year: Orthogonal

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:24:00 +0000

Last year I posted about the word "Romanette," and its use during a SCOTUS argument wherein Chief Justice Roberts admitted to having never heard the term. Well, this past Monday seemed like deja vu all over again. In the argument for Briscoe v. Virginia, University of Michigan Law School Professor Richard D. Friedman described something as "entirely orthogonal." Click here for the full, rather entertaining story.

Check you briefs!

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0000

If you're an Above The Law fan, you'll get the headline. If not, you ought to be an Above The Law fan.

In honor of yesterday's midnight brief filing deadline for the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, my post today is just a simple reminder that you can never do enough copyediting. Seriously, click the link. You won't be disappointed...

Thanks to Brian Leiter for the tip...

Competition hosting: To participate, or not participate?

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Brian Koppen has followed up on the promise he made last summer to feature some guest posts on his blog. About a month ago, last year's student chairman of the James Braxton Craven, Jr. Moot Court Competition weighed in on the issue of whether, in advocacy competitions run by a particular school (as opposed to a Bar Association or law firm), a team from the host school should participate in the tournament.

The post discusses all the right reasons for the Craven committee's decision not to allow a UNC team to compete. Believe me -- nothing good can come from the host school participating. Any round the home team wins leaves the losing team with a sour taste in its mouth. And it's not that the host school "cheated" or had any real advantage; rather, it's the perception of advantage, combined with the inevitable unwillingness of any advocacy team to admit that it was actually inferior to its opponent.

Simply put: If the host school wins (or even goes deep into the field), nobody's happy. Why would you want to subject that to yourself if you're trying to run a reputable competition?

ABA NAAC regional assignments released

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:45:00 +0000

The staff at the ABA has had some difficulty this year setting the six regional cities for the 2010 National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Frankly, I'm surprised they're ever able to accomplish the monumental task of securing six (with the exception of Miami and Boston) federal courthouses to run competitions of 30-plus teams over a specific three-week period. Last year's city of St. Louis was replaced by Las Vegas, which the NAAC had used in 2007 and 2008.

Anyway, the teams had to lodge their preferences by Monday, and the ABA was able to turn those requests around in a day to release the regional assignments. Pretty impressive. They're now posted to the NAAC competitors site, but because the info on that site is confidential to the students and coaches, I won't divulge the address...

It's always a bit silly to try predicting the "toughest city" in terms of team strength, but hey, I might as well try. I ran the numbers using three different metrics: Last year's 24 ABA regional champions, the top 16 teams of the University of Houston Blakely Advocacy Institute's Moot Court National Championship rankings, and the current top 16 teams according to Brian Koppen's LawSchoolAdvocacy.com ranking site. Note that although Mercer University School of Law and University of Miami School of Law are participants in this year's Moot Court National Championship, they weren't in the original top 16 -- University of California Hastings College of the Law and Columbia Law School declined their invitations, which led to to Mercer's and Miami's entries.

If we look at last year's 24 ABA regional champs, it would appear that Boston is this year's toughest ABA regional, hosting six schools that sent a team to Chicago last year (Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Marquette University Law School, South Texas College of Law, St. Mary's University School of Law, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and University of Florida Levin College of Law), including last year's national champion (South Texas). Las Vegas and San Francisco would appear to be the weakest regions, with just two schools at each having sent teams to last year's national finals (Vegas hosts Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology and University of San Diego School of Law; San Fran hosts Hastings and University of Texas School of Law).

Using UH's MCNC rankings from the 2008-09 academic year, Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. tie for the toughest, with three top-16 schools at each region. Brooklyn will play host to #15 Brooklyn Law School, # 6 Seton Hall University School of Law, and # 9 Texas Tech University School of Law, with D.C. fielding #4 Duke University School of Law, #14 Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, and #16 William and Mary Law School. San Francisco would seem to be the easiest, with only one school in the top 16 (#5 Hastings).

And finally, under LawSchoolAdvocacy.com's 2009 running tally (which hasn't yet been updated with results from seven fall competitions), the Miami regional looks like the roughest go, with four top-16 schools (#4 Michigan State University College of Law, #7 Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, #9 Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and #13 Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University). Again, San Francisco is the lightest, with just one (#5 Hastings).

So, umm, yeahhhhh. Not a real definitive answer, except that San Francisco would appear to be the weakest regional under any of the three approaches.

***12/18 Edit: The ABA revised three regional assignments yesterday: SMU and Regent University School of Law have swapped cities, so now SMU will go to Brooklyn and Regent will go to D.C. Miami, rather than staying home, will now go to Vegas. Nothing changes above except as to the Houston MCNC rankings; with the addition of SMU, Brooklyn becomes the toughest city by itself (as opposed to being tied with D.C.) using that metric, having four top-16 teams instead of three.

ABA Arbitration finalists announced

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Although 14 teams advanced to the national finals of the ABA Arbitration Competition last year, just 12 will make the trip to Orange County, California this coming January. The final 12:

Chreighton University School of Law
Duquense University School of Law
Michigan State University College of Law
Mississippi College School of Law
Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law (2 teams)
Southwestern Law School
Stetson University College of Law (2 teams)
Texas Tech University School of Law (2 teams)
Villanova University School of Law

It's been interesting to see the results at this competition over the past three years. Only Chreighton, Southwestern, and Villanova are schools that weren't among the national finalists last year. Stetson won the tournament in 2007, while Texas Tech won it in 2008. That, in my mind, shows pretty solid consistency in results. On the other hand, none of the four final teams from last year made it back this year...

Your honor, this is Ghostrider, requesting permission to buzz the witness?

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:20:00 +0000

Uh, that's a negative counselor; the courtroom is full.

Wow.

Check out what Baylor Law School is planning on pulling off this summer. Apparently, it's convinced the Texas law firm of Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee to be its wingman and pony up some serious jack to sponsor a first-of-its kind competition. I haven't yet had the chance to talk to the powers that be at Baylor, but it appears they'll invite one advocate from each selected school to travel to Waco in June and prepare a mock trial case in 24 hours. The winner walks away with one stack of high society; those who screw up just *this* much are presumably condemned to a life of litigating cases about rubber dog sh*t in Hong Kong.

Great balls of fire.

I've got to give it to Baylor; this sounds absolutely incredible.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks...

UC Hastings serves up tasty concoction at Tang

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:29:00 +0000

University of California Hastings College of the Law took home the top prize at the international finals of the 2009 Thomas Tang Moot Court Competition. The tournament, which is put on by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Law Foundation, started with more than 70 teams spread across five regions. The international finalists met in Boston on November 21 for the championship. Nova Southeastern University Law Center won second place. Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the John Marshall Law School finished as semifinalists.

Nova Southeastern also claimed Best Brief honors. Tara Shelke of John Marshall was the Best Oralist.

Next year's international finals will take place in my hometown of Los Angeles.

Full results are here. Hastings has a web report here; Nova Southeastern has one here.

National finalist teams for National Moot Court Competition

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:38:00 +0000

The slate of teams is set for the national finals of the National Moot Court Competition, which will take place February 1-4 at the New York City Bar Association headquarters in Manhattan. The competition's regional rounds took place in November, with 172 teams entering from 118 American law schools.

Below are the 28 teams that will rumble for the 60th Anniversary trophy.

I've listed the teams according to region, with the regional champion listed first.

Region 1 (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island):
Syracuse University College of Law
Boston College Law School

Region 2 (New York, New Jersey):
Fordham University School of Law
St. John’s University School of Law

Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland):
University of Baltimore School of Law
Temple University Beasley School of Law

Region 4 (Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina):
George Mason University School of Law
Wake Forest University School of Law

Region 5 (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida):
University of Georgia School of Law
Emory University School of Law

Region 6 (Ohio, Michigan):
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Region 7 (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana):
Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law
Mississippi College School of Law

Region 8 (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana):
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

Region 9 (Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas):
Saint Louis University School of Law
University of Arkansas School of Law

Region 10 (Texas, Oklahoma):
Texas Tech University School of Law
South Texas College of Law

Region 11 (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming):
Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
University of Colorado Law School

Region 12 (California):
University of California Hastings College of the Law
University of San Francisco School of Law

Region 13 (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana):
University of Washington School of Law
Seattle University School of Law

Region 14 (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa):
Hamline University Law School
University of Minnesota Law School

Michigan State turns in righteous performance at Emory's CRAL moot tournament

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Michigan State University College of Law was the winner of the 2009 Civil Rights and Liberties Moot Court Competition, hosted by the Emory University School of Law. The tournament, which took place October 10-11, featured 24 teams from 16 schools. The University of San Diego School of Law finished second. South Texas College of Law and the University of Georgia School of Law were the semifinalists.

St. Mary's Law School won the Best Brief award, while Randy Freeman of San Diego was the competition's best oralist.

Michigan State has a press release here; San Diego has one here.

Loyola Chicago sickens field at Health Law moot court competition

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The 18th Annual Health Law Moot Court Competition took place the weekend of November 6-7, and Loyola University Chicago School of Law took top honors. The University of Pittsburgh School of Law finished in second place. Two teams from South Texas College of Law rounded out the semifinalists of the 28-team competition, which was hosted by the Southern Illinois University School of Law.

South Texas College of Law pulled in the Best Brief award. Kim Waldrop of Faulker University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law was named Best Oralist of the preliminary rounds, while Joe Sadaly of Pitt won the Best Overall Oralist award.

Full results are here.

SMU denies Texas Tech encore at Entertainment Law moot

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law won this weekend's 12th Annual National Entertainment Law Moot Court Competition, a 24-team tournament hosted by the Pepperdine University School of Law. My Texas Tech University School of Law team finished as the runner-up, thereby preventing a repeat of last year's results. George Mason University School of Law and DePaul University College of Law were the semifinalists.

Fordham University School of Law at the Jesuit University of New York won Best Petitioner's Brief, with University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law winning the counterpart award on the Respondent side. Adam Doupe of SMU was the Best Oralist of the preliminary rounds, while his teammate Ashley Pulliam was the Best Oralist of the final round.

Chicago-Kent "lawyers up" at Illinois ALA competition

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology took home most of the loot at this weekend's Illinois Appellate Lawyers Moot Court Competition, narrowly edging my Texas Tech University School of Law team for the championship (the final round was separated by a mere 2/3 of a point). University of Houston Law Center and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University were the semifinalists at the 16-team tournament.

Chicago-Kent won Best Brief, and its own Jocelyn Floyd won Best Overall Oralist. Robin O'Neill of Houston was the top oralist of the preliminary rounds.

Alabama rolls over competition at National Trial Advocacy Competition

robert.sherwin@ttu.edu (Robert T. Sherwin) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The University of Alabama School of Law won the 10th Annual National Trial Advocacy Competition, held October 8-11 at the Michigan State University College of Law. The University of Houston Law Center finished second at the 26-team tournament. Georgetown University Law Center and Fordham University School of Law at the Jesuit University of New York were the semifinalists.

Sam Nicholson of Georgia State University College of Law took home Best Advocate honors. The Best Opening Statement award went to Aida Wondwessen of Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, while Best Closing Argument was awarded to Deborah Wassel of Fordham. Daniel Michaelson of Brooklyn Law School won Best Direct Examination; Justina Lopez of Fordham won Best Cross Examination. The University of Denver College of Law on the Professional Ethics Award.

Georgia State has a write up here.