Successfully Competing in U.S. Moot Court Competitions
Author:
Teply, Larry L.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2014
11 chapters
have results for law school competitions
Chapter One. Preparatory Steps 229 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Participation in law school competitions like moot court also serves as a resume builder. Furthermore, participation and success in law school competitions may open up opportunities that otherwise might not be available to student participants.
- In the United States, moot court started at Harvard Law School in 1820. It spread quickly to other law schools and has become a time-honored tradition at most law schools in the United States. Persuasive writing, including the drafting of appellate briefs, is now part of virtually all legal writing courses. Some introductory instruction on oral argument is usually provided in those courses. Some schools also require students to participate in an internal moot court competition involving students only from that school. In addition, students may compete in local, regional, national, or international moot court competitions. Those competitions often focus on specific areas of law.
- Participation in moot court competitions often involves substantial time commitments. Success in law school competitions may also lead to running internal school competitions as a moot court board member. Dealing with these substantial time commitments helps students to learn to set goals, manage their time, and work effectively under pressure.
- Many schools have student organizations that administer student competitions. The student organization typically responsible for moot court competitions at United States law schools is a “Moot Court Board,” “Board of Advocates,” or “Board of Student Advisors.” Being selected to be a member of such a board is often the key to participating in external moot court competitions.
- Invitational competitions also exist on particular topics, such as constitutional law. The Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship Competition invites teams from 16 law schools based on a weighted school ranking system using results from the immediately preceding academic year. In addition, a few competitions are limited to schools from a particular state, such as California
- Open Chapter
Preface 6 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Law school competitions provide an excellent way of helping law students learn and refine skills important to the practice of law. Moot court competitions focus on two of those skills: written advocacy and oral advocacy. This guide is designed to provide insight and advice on how to successfully prepare for and compete in moot court competitions, especially ones set in domestic courts of the United States.
- This guide adapts material from two forerunners. First, moot court competitions were the subject of one of the chapters in Larry L. Teply,
- Specifically, (1) this guide addresses preparatory steps that should be taken prior to entering a moot court competition; (2) it recommends methods of analyzing and researching moot court problems; (3) it provides advice on how to draft an appellate brief for a moot court competition; (4) it sets out suggestions for preparing and delivering an appellate oral argument in a moot court competition; (5) it discusses competition logistics; and (6) it concludes with advice on keeping moot court competitions in perspective.
- I want to thank the continuing research support provided by Creighton Law School and its law librarians. I want to acknowledge helpful assistance provided by two Creighton professors: Nancy Lawler Dickhute and Carol C. Knoepfler. I also want to acknowledge excellent research assistance provided by Creighton Law student William B. Wray.
- Finally, I wish to acknowledge ideas from numerous other sources that I have absorbed over the years of teaching from materials related to moot court competitions; coaching; judging; talking with coaches, appellate judges, and students; drafting moot court problems; and helping administer the National Appellate Advocacy Competition for the American Bar Association.
- Open Chapter
Chapter Five. Competition Logistics and Keeping the Competition in Perspective 58 results (showing 5 best matches)
- As part of hosting a competition, regional and national competition administrators typically provide advance information about accommodations, location, and other logistics. You should allow sufficient time for possible delays in getting to the competition city as well as the competition site itself—the courthouse, the law school, the hotel, etc.
- External competitions often involve travel—in some instances, travel over considerable distances. Ordinarily, law schools assist students with their travel expenses (as well as payment of the entry fees). However, when students are the driving force to enter the competition, students sometimes pay their own expenses ( when students seek to enter one of the many specialized moot court competitions in which a school has not regularly competed).
- Moot court competitions prohibit “scouting” of a team’s future opponents. The following is a typical rule: “No team member still participating [in the competition] shall attend the argument of any other school or receive information from any person who has attended an argument of any other school.”
- Moot court competitions with a brief component require a team’s brief be submitted on or before a deadline. In intraschool competitions, this requirement typically translates into simply turning the brief in before the deadline. In competitions involving multiple law schools, this requirement manifests itself as the “service of the brief.” Generally speaking, copies of a team’s brief are “served” on the organizing entity and/or the host of the competition. In addition, a copy or copies of a team’s brief may be served on the opposing teams. The rules usually provide a detailed method for effectuating service. Increasingly, briefs are served as e-mail attachments.
- Traditionally, briefs in moot court competitions are “blind graded.” Some competitions require each participating school to select a faculty member or lawyer to serve as a brief grader. These brief graders cannot be associated with the school’s team. Nor can they participate in practice rounds, discuss the problem with the team or coaches, or provide any other assistance. To assure impartiality, the brief graders ordinarily grade briefs from a region other than where their respective schools will be competing.
- Open Chapter
Chapter Four. Oral Argument 48 results (showing 5 best matches)
- With regard to external competitions, a few competitions limit practice rounds to a specified number ( “Schools entering two teams [in the competition] may hold a maximum of three practice arguments between the two teams after the filing of their brief and prior to the commencement of the competition”). Most competitions, however, permit unlimited practice rounds,
- Moot Court in the Modern Law School
- The specific formulation of the judging criteria for the oral arguments varies from competition to competition. Generally speaking, the criteria focus on presentation, clarity, organization, knowledge of the record, courtesy, and the ability to respond to questions from the bench. For example, judges in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition rate the advocates using criteria in four categories:
- The amount of time permitted for oral argument in moot court competitions is strictly regulated by the rules of the particular competition, but it is often 20 minutes or one-half hour for each side. Because a light system is not usually available in moot court competitions, a warning time card system is often provided to inform counsel and the court of the time remaining. If the time limit expires before all important points have been covered, you may request a short extension to summarize or conclude, particularly when questioning from the court has consumed a significant portion of your time. Your request may or may not be granted by the presiding judge. In moot court competitions, however, requests are typically granted, especially if the judge feels you have been unduly harassed.
- In preparation for external competitions, teams typically practice three to five times a week for three to six weeks. Indeed, “the conventional wisdom is that the team that practices the most, and before the widest diversity of benches, has a decided advantage in any competition.”
- Open Chapter
Chapter Three. Drafting the Brief 111 results (showing 5 best matches)
- This excellent set of criteria is reproduced from the Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship. Teams for that championship are selected based on the performance of a law school in moot court competitions during the prior academic year. However, the order and format of the criteria have been changed.
- Most moot court competitions randomly assign teams a team number, even in intraschool competitions. That designation is ordinarily the sole method of identifying the team during the oral competition. The designation is also used to identify the team’s brief for purposes of grading by the judges. In a few competitions, however, two covers are required—with the name of the team members and their school placed at the bottom of the first front cover of the brief (which will be removed prior to grading), followed by a second cover with only the team’s designation as the identifying information on it.
- Moot Court in the Modern Law School
- Because a song with religious content in the choir’s repertoire is not per se constitutionally objectionable, the choir director’s act of selecting one of these songs cannot amount to excessive entanglement. The law simply cannot both allow a religious song to be in the choir’s repertoire and not allow the choir director to choose to have the choir perform it—such a rule would be indefensible. If a school choir can be taught to sing a particular song in school, so should it be able to perform that song at a school function.
- The style, font options, pitch options, paper size, margins, and length tend to be strictly regulated in moot court competitions. These restrictions reflect a concern about maintaining “an even playing field” and facilitating electronic service of the briefs. Some competitions even designate the word processing program with which the briefs must be created.
- Open Chapter
Chapter Two. Analyzing and Researching the Problem 52 results (showing 5 best matches)
- For example, with regard to Dakota High School and the other defendants in the moot court competition record set out in § 1.15, you could develop a list of “good facts”:
- Legal rulings by the trial judge include the judge’s determination of the law applicable to the case, the judge’s instructions to the jury, or the judge’s decision on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, summary judgment, or judgment as a matter of law. These types of rulings are Most competition problems will involve such a review.
- Some moot court competitions use a “closed universe” problem—you will be permitted to cite only to a particular set of cases, statutes, and secondary sources. Most moot court competitions, however, use an “open universe” problem—any source may be used as authority.
- You should take note of any deadline for seeking clarifications of the record in the competition rules. During your preliminary research, you may find legally significant ambiguities or gaps in the record. Ordinarily, a procedure will exist to raise any issues concerning the record with the competition administrators.
- Moot Court in the Modern Law School
- Open Chapter
Advisory Board 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Professor of Law, Yale Law School
- Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
- Professor of Law, Michael E. Moritz College of Law,
- Professor of Law Emeritus, University of San Diego Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Michigan
- Professor of Law, Chancellor and Dean Emeritus, Hastings College of the Law
- Open Chapter
Table of Contents 11 results (showing 5 best matches)
Index 11 results (showing 5 best matches)
Table of Short Form Citations 1 result
Title Page 1 result
- Publication Date: July 14th, 2014
- ISBN: 9780314281814
- Subject: Moot Court/Trial Competition
- Series: Academic and Career Success
- Type: Academic/Prof. Development
- Description: Teply's Successfully Competing in U.S. Moot Court Competitions is a short, easy-reading book, designed to help students prepare for team selection competitions as well as those who will be competing at U.S. moot court competitions. It includes advice on a range of issues – from selecting a partner to keeping the competition in perspective after it is over. It includes advice based on interviews with successful moot court coaches from several law schools.
