LAW 9213 - Moot Court Team

Fulfills writing and/or skills requirement; Third year preferred.
Moot court involves students in mock appellate arguments and brief writing. Participation requires substantive legal knowledge, but also requires legal research, analysis, and writing skills, and the ability to present findings orally in an appellate court context. Participation in an extramural moot court competition against other law schools moot court teams is the pinnacle of the moot court achievement. Classroom time will be intermittent, but the two months leading up to a competition will require a great deal of each student’s time. Students in this course will participate in inter-scholastic appellate argument tournaments. They will also organize and run the Law School’s competition to assist the faculty in selecting future Moot Court Team members. These activities will enhance their appellate advocacy, organizational, and leadership skills. To compete on a team, the students will have to research and write an appellate brief on a complex topic. The written work, by competition rules, must be the students’ original work and must meet all requirements listed for upper-level intensive legal writing requirement, including without limitation, length, faculty supervision, producing multiple drafts, and publication quality. The students will be evaluated on the basis of their participation in appellate moot court competitions as well as their organization and execution of the Law School’s intra-school competition. Students will be invited to enroll in the course based on their ranking in an open tryout. A cumulative GPA of 2.5 is required to be a member of the Moot Court Team. Credit(s): 1 per semester