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Moot Court Maven

I am currently preparing for my last moot court tournament of my law school career. It's the ABA Appellate Advocacy Competition, and my enthusiasm for it, as for almost everything in law school is waning. However, the competition is in Las Vegas next week and then it will be mercifully over. I had a practice moot last night, and I was just awful. I'm going to really buckle down in the next few days, but the goal right now has been lowered to 'try not to embarrass yourself.'

That being said, by and large, I have had a wonderful experience competing in these competitions over my law school career. There are two reasons why I have chosen to compete in so many competitions over the last three years. First, these competitions are a wonderful opportunity to receive feedback from accomplished legal professionals and otherwise work on improving your skills as an advocate. I feel that I have learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses as an advocate and it will only make me a much better attorney. Second, I love getting paid to go places. I have spent so much money going to law school that going on expensive trips is a way of getting a modicum of my money back. Anyway, here is a little trip down memory lane:

1. Galloway Criminal Law Moot Court (Santa Clara, Ca) (see here, here and here): This was my first foray into the moot court experience and it was a good one. My and my partner's brief made the cut, we beat everyone we went against in the first four rounds, but we lost in the semi-finals, due, I believe, largely to my substandard performance that evening. However, this competition gave me enough confidence to compete in more competitions.

2. Advocacy Moot (San Jose, Ca): Well this was actually a class requirement for my (and everyone else's) advocacy class, but we had partners, opposing counsel, judges and we actually competed at a court in downtown San Jose, so I'll include it in the list. I got a neat certificate for being the highest scoring advocate in the round, which was nice.

3. National Trial Competition (San Francisco, Ca): Competed in one round and won that round and my partner was the highest scoring advocate. (Pic of me giving my opening in this round up top). However, the other half of my team lost in the other round and we didn't advance.

4. ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition (Brooklyn, NY): I competed in two rounds and was the highest scoring advocate in those rounds. However, our brief score was low, so despite winning all of our oral argument rounds, we didn't advance.

5. International Criminal Court Competition (White Plains, NY): (see here and here) I competed in two rounds and we won those two rounds and did well enough to advance to the semi-finals. In fact, in the preliminary round, we beat the team that eventually won the whole thing and I was the highest scorer in that round. My other teammates did pretty well in the semi's but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

6. National Trial Competition (San Francisco, Ca): Competed in one round and won that round, and I've been led to believe that I was also the highest scoring advocate in that round (I haven't seen the scoring sheets yet). But alas, despite a good effort, my other two teammates got hosed in the second round and we didn't advance.

7. ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition (Las Vegas) TBA

Conclusion: For the record, I am pretty sure that no one at my law school has competed in as many moot court/trial team competitions as me. By the way, I just noticed that, since Galloway, I have not lost a single round in which I have competed in and in fact, I have been the highest scorer in 4 of those 6 winning rounds. And not a first place finish to show for it. What does that make me? The Karl Malone of moot competitions? Known for longevity and personal accolades but can never lead his team to the promised land? I suspect that this winning streak will end in Vegas (like so many do), but yet I still am grateful for these opportunities that I have had to represent the school and myself on the school's dime.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).