Moot Court is an excellent way to practice your advocacy skills, have fun, and in some cases to win cash prizes. Plus, in the third year, law students can apply to be in the Order of the Barristers, a national advocacy honor society.
Moot Court gives law students an opportunity to develop oral and written advocacy skills learned in the classroom and put them to test in a "simulated" trial or advocacy environment. Judges and jurors for the competitions are often practitioners and sitting judges. In addition, our law students frequently work with junior high and high school students in their mock trial/moot court activities.
The Moot Court Program at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law has two components: 1) Intra-school competitions and 2) Interscholastic teams.
Notify Lauren Crawford to add you to the Moot Court blackboard site. The blackboard site has up-to-date calendars and information for current competitions.
Intra-School Competitions
The intra-school competitions are held throughout the academic year and are managed by the Executive Moot Court Board, which is composed of law students. All competitions are open to law students from all class years. Please don't hesitate to enter a competition just because you are a first-year law student. It is not uncommon for 1Ls to win; for the last three years, a 1L has won the Client Counseling Competition.
Client Counseling
The Client Counseling Competition, open to all law students, is designed to assist students in perfecting interviewing, counseling and communication skills necessary in the practice of law. Each competitor acts as an attorney interviewing a new client, while judges observe the interaction and provide the student with feedback after the interview. Client Counseling is the first competition held during the school year. There is little preparation involved and it is a great introduction to the Moot Court Program.
Jenckes The Jenckes Closing Argument Competition is an annual competition between the The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU and The James E. Rogers College of Law. Students prepare and present a closing argument based on a closed case file. Two winners and two alternates are selected during the intra-school competition, who go on to compete against a team from the University of Arizona for the coveted Jenckes Cup. The two winners and two alternates from ASU receive Bar/Bri discounts.
Oplinger The Oplinger Competition is a closing-argument competition prepared from a closed case file. The Oplinger Competition is sponsored by the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. The competition is held in the spring and the four winners receive monetary prizes.
Mediation This competition has both an intra-school and traveling component and is run in conjunction with the Lodestar Mediation Clinic. An intra-school competition is held in which students act as mediators. Then the winners have the opportunity to compete regionally as a team. We have a history of doing well in this competition, frequently winning the regional and placing in the top four teams nationally.
Interscholastic Teams
Interscholastic moot court teams generally involve a more concentrated effort on behalf of the teams. The teams are judged on both written and oral components. Although not one of their duties, the Moot Court Board compiles a rather comprehensive list of external competitions available to students. Other than the Jessup competition, there is no funding supplied by the College of Law for interscholastic teams. For funding details, please see the Moot Court blackboard site. Although the College of Law did fundregistrations during 2006 - 2007, that was a phasing out process and is not available now.
If you are interested, please click on "Get Involved in Moot Court" below. To read the Moot Court Policy or to get an application, please click on the appropriate links. If you wish to submit an application for a traveling competition or if you have questions, please contact the Moot Court Advisor, Kristine Reich, Director of Pro Bono Programs and Student Life.
Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
This is the only official school-sponsored traveling moot court team. For information about the national competition, click http://www.ilsa.org/jessup/ . The team is coordinated by Professor Doug Sylvester.
Mediation
This competition is listed in both categories, because the intraschool competition is used as the preliminary for the regional competition. It is sponsored by and organized through the Lodestar Mediation Program. The teams consist of two law students who compete in two rounds. Each student plays the role of attorney or client at least once.
Student Organization Teams
It is not uncommon for individual student organizations to sponsor teams for competitions in their respective areas. If you are interested in one of these competitions, please contact the appropriate student organization. References to the groups are to our local groups and not to regional or national groups. Some of our traditional teams are:
Native American Law Students Association
NALSA generally competes in this national competition. NALSA will host the 16th annual National NALSA Moot Court Competition in February, 2008.
American Association of Justice
AAJ generally sponsors two teams for the full mock trial competition.
Gay and Lesbian Legal Alliance
GALLA has been very active in moot court over the past couple of years. They have competed in both interschool traveling competitions as well as in a statewide competition between Arizona law schools presented annually at the State Bar of Arizona convention.
Executive Moot Court Board
The Executive Moot Court Board is the administrative arm of the intra-school Moot Court program, and consists of both 2Ls and 3Ls.
The members of the 2008-2009 Executive Moot Court Board are:
Bryce Burnham, 2L Board Member
Lauren Crawford, 3L Co-Chair
Nicole Hartley, 3L Co-Chair
Whitney Harvey, 2L Board Member
Morgan Seegmiller, 2L Board Member
Trish Stuhan, 3L Board Member
The Moot Court advisor and administrator for the interscholastic competitions is Kristine Reich, Director of Pro Bono Programs and Student Life. Please do not hesitate to contact her if you have questions or are interested in moot court.
