After the recent passing of Ralph Spritzer, the Oral Argument Competition has been renamed the Ralph Spritzer Oral Argument Competition in honor of Professor Spritzer's many accomplishments as an exceptional oral advocate. Accordingly, the Moot Court Board has created the Spritzer trophy.

March 20-26, Rob Gordon, Adam Reich, Jared Sutton, and Sam Efird represented the College of Law in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Having already advanced through the regional round in February, the ASU team was competing in the international round. Jessup is the world's largest moot court competition and has more than 650 participant schools from over 80 countries.

The team finished second among all U.S. schools and tied for fifth among ALL schools from around the world. During the competition, our team defeated the University of Virginia and Georgetown University, and advanced further than any American school except Columbia University (the eventual runner-up). Congratulations to Rob, Adam, Jared, and Sam!

Dear Members of the Graduating Class of 2011;

All graduating third year students who qualify are invited to submit applications for membership in the The Order of Barristers.

The Order of  Barristers is a national honorary organization whose purpose is the encouragement of oral advocacy and brief writing skills through effective law school advocacy programs. The Order provides national recognition for persons who have excelled in advocacy and service in law school, and honors those graduating 3Ls who have demonstrated outstanding ability in the preparation and presentation of moot court arguments.

Students excelling in oral advocacy and brief writing skills are selected for membership based on the following six criteria. If you meet at least two of the criteria listed, you are eligible to self-nominate.

1. Membership in an interscholastic traveling team
2. Participating in competitions for interscholastic teams
3. Participation and performance in the administration of moot court programs
4. Participation and performance in intra-school competitions
5. Participation and performance in a teaching program for brief writing and/or oral advocacy skills for other law students (i.e., writing TA)
6. Performance record in the writing and/or oral advocacy courses.

To apply for this award please submit a current resume as well as a one to two page narrative describing how you have achieved at least two of the six qualifying criteria and why you should be selected,  to Victoria.Trotta@asu.edu or deliver it to the Law Library Administrative Offices by Monday, March 21 by noon. [NB: please be sure you are sending to the proper address. We have a recent graduate who is Victoria.C.Trotta and you may have that email address in your contacts list. I will not receive it if it goes to the wrong email address.]

The ten law students awarded with The Order of  Barristers will be recognized at the Moot Court Banquet at Friday’s Front Row on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. Also, the ten names will be listed in the convocation program for the College of Law.

Please contact me with questions, Thank you.

Tory Trotta, Moot Court  Advisor

The deadline to sign up for the Oral Argument Competition is Friday, February 11 at 5 PM. Competitors can sign up online here. More information can be found on our Materials page.

The Executive Moot Court Board will be holding an informational meeting for the Oral Argument competition on Thursday, February 3 at 12:15 PM in room 105. A guest speaker will be presenting on how to give an effective oral argument. Free lunch will be served!

On November 6, second-year ASU law student Christine Jones won the Best Oral Advocate award for Region 11 of the New York City Bar's National Moot Court Competition. Congratulations, Christine!

Congratulations to all the participants in the 2010 Jenckes Closing Argument competition! Our top four winners are:

Brad and Tim will travel to U of A on November 12 to compete against them for the Jenckes Cup. Moot Court is organizing a bus to travel down to Tucson and cheer them on; e-mail Kim Allen if interested.

NAAC Moot Court Teams - Tryout Now!

This year, the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will send two teams to the National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC). The NAAC is hosted by the ABA, and is one of the preeminent Moot Court Competitions, recognized by firms around the nation. Student competitors must be student members of the ABA by December 1st to compete.  The problem is released in early November, with briefs being due on January 10th. The oral arguments will take place during one of three weeks at the end of February or beginning of March, 2011 in Seattle, Washington.

Once the problem is released, students will be able to determine in teams how best to tackle the brief. After the brief is due, students will be expected to meet weekly in order to prepare oral arguments for the competition. This is a commitment of about 15 hours a week, and students must be in good academic standing to compete (note this part of the commitment will take place in Spring 2011 semester). Students may also be responsible for some costs, if they advance to Nationals. However, each student will be expected to apply for reimbursement from GPSA.

NTC Mock Trial Teams - Tryout Now!

The College of Law will also select four elite students to form two teams for the National Trial Competition ("NTC"). The NTC is an elite mock trial competition, focusing on the aspects of trial litigation and advocacy. Each two-person team will complete either an opening or closing, a direct, and a cross of a witness in a courtroom setting. Witnesses are provided at the tournament and competitors will have a brief time to prepare them, relying mainly on their ability to question and engage a witness. Hosted by the Texas Young Lawyers Association, this competition, like the NAAC, is recognized nationally. The regional competition will be held at University of Arkansas on February 3-5, 2011.  If your school advances to Nationals, we will be in Houston, April 6-9, 2011. This is a commitment of about 10 hours per week. Students may be responsible for some costs, but will be expected to apply for reimbursement from GPSA for this tournament as well.

Scheduling your tryout for NAAC or NTC

The Executive Moot Court Board will hold tryouts to select students interested in both of these exciting opportunities. Each tryout will take 15 minutes, 7-10 minutes of which will include an oral argument or trial advocacy demonstration by the student (oral arguments for NAAC; trial advocacy (open or closed, TBD) for NTC). The EMCB will provide a closed sample brief from which each student is to prepare his/her arguments for the NAAC tryout. A problem or assignment will be provided for the NTC tryout.

Tryouts for both competitions will be held on November 7th from 12 am-4 pm at the law library. If you are interested in setting up a tryout time, please contact Amara.Edblad@asu.edu for more information.

The Jenckes Closing Argument competition will be held on Monday, October 25; Tuesday, October 26; and Thursday, October 28.

The problem and materials are now available. Competitors will prepare a ten (10) minute closing argument using ONLY the materials provided.  This is a CLOSED problem - you do not need to do any research. You will be representing the Defendant in this criminal problem.

 

If you would like to compete, please sign up using our online sign-up system. You can sign up for, or withdraw from, the competition until Monday, October 18th at 5:00pm. After that time, withdrawing from the competition will result in a one-year ban from Moot Court competitions. If you're interested in being a timer, we have a timer signup available as well.

We will also have a table at lunch on Monday, October 18th. Paper sign up sheets for both participants and timers will be available at the table.

 

There are BarBri Scholarships for the top competitors provided in the amounts of:

 

First Place: $500

Second Place: $500

Third Place: $250

Fourth Place: $250

 

The top two competitors will go on to compete against U of A on November 12th.

 

Tuesday, October 5, at 12:15 PM, the Executive Moot Court Board will be holding a meeting in room 118 regarding the upcoming Jenckes Closing Argument Competition. Lunch will be served and our featured speaker will be Keith Berkshire of the Cavanagh Law Firm. Students interested in participating in Jenckes should attend.

1L's and Transfer Students -
 
We are providing a unique opportunity to 1L's and transfer students to become members of the Executive Moot Court Board - a great leadership opportunity and resume builder. As part of the board, you will help organize competitions hosted at the school, as well as assist teams traveling to competitions outside the school. All interested applicants should email a resume and letter of interest to Molly Haas. The letter of interest should tell us why you want to be a board member, and list any qualifications you have that would be an asset to the board. Some general ideas for the letter of interest include leadership and organizational experience, participation in moot court or mock trial (including this year's Client Counseling competition), and fundraising experience. This is not an exhaustive list, and you should not feel like you have to have all (or any) of these particular qualifications. The due date for application materials is October 1, 2010.

Come join the Executive Moot Court Board for our informational meeting about the fast-approaching Client Counseling Competition at 12:15PM in Room 116 on Tuesday, August 31, 2010.  Free pizza will be served.

The competition will run during the evenings of Monday, 9/13 and Tuesday, 9/14 with the Finals being held on Thursday, 9/16 (competitors get to choose which of the two preliminary nights they'll compete, either Monday or Tuesday, and if they advance, will also compete on Thursday).

This competition provides an invaluable opportunity to receive feedback from real-world attorneys and judges on your lawyering skills.  While this meeting is NOT mandatory if you plan to participate in the competition, it will be the best opportunity to learn about the competition, its time requirements, how it will benefit your law school experience, etc.

In addition, there will be an opportunity to sign up at the meeting. FYI, sign ups will close next Friday, Sep 3rd at 5:00PM. So, please come join us on Tuseday to learn about this competition and Moot Court in general (oh, and get some pizza).

This year, the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will host the Regional competition for the New York City Bar's 61st Annual National Moot Court Competition. The competition will be held on ASU's campus in the evening of Friday, November 5th and the morning of Saturday, November 6th. The first and second place teams in the competition (top 2 out of 12) will advance to the National Finals, which take place in New York City on January 31st-February 3rd, 2011. While this competition requires significant preparation, it is one of the nation's most prestigious moot court competitions.

Thus, the Executive Moot Court Board will hold tryouts to select students interested in this exciting opportunity. Each tryout will take 15 minutes, 7-10 minutes of which will include an oral argument demonstration by the student and about 3-5 minutes discussing the students' interest in the competition. The EMCB will provide all materials necessary for students to prepare his/her arguments, all students need to do is summarize the main arguments and turn them into a persuasive oral argument.

Students can also join the team as a dedicated brief writer, helping the team write an appellate brief but not arguing before the justices.  As dedicated brief writers do not conduct oral argument, students can tryout for these spots simply by submitting two writing samples to Jeff Silence and scheduling a time for a quick interview on August 29th.

Tryouts will be held on one day only, on Sunday, August 29th from 11:30 am-3:30 pm in the Law Library Conference Room. If you are interested in setting up a tryout time or are interested in the competition but cannot make the tryout time, please contact the EMCB for more information.

If you are interested in trying out, the tryout problem and sample briefs are below:

This year, the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will host the Regional competition for the New York City Bar's 61st Annual National Moot Court Competition. The competition will be held on ASU's campus in the evening of Friday, November 5th and the morning of Saturday, November 6th. The first and second place teams in the competition (top 2 out of 10) will advance to the National Finals, which take place in New York on January 31st-February 3rd, 2011.

Students will be expected to meet weekly in order to prepare a brief and oral arguments for the competition. This is a commitment of about 15 hours a week, and students must be in good academic standing to compete. Students may also be responsible for some costs, if they advance to Nationals. However, each student will be expected to apply for reimbursement from GPSA.

The Executive Moot Court Board will hold tryouts to select students interested in this exciting opportunity. Each tryout will take 15 minutes, 7-10 minutes of which will include an oral argument demonstration by the student. The EMCB will provide a closed sample brief from which each student is to prepare his/her arguments. Tryouts will be held on one day only, on Sunday, August 29th from 11:30 am-3:30 pm in the Law Library Conference Room. If you are interested in setting up a tryout time or are interested in the competition but cannot make the tryout time, please contact the EMCB for more information.