The information provided in this document pertains to students seeking to compete on any Moot Court team during the 2008-2009 school year. Tryouts are conducted jointly. Thus, you may try out for any team – and more than one team – through this process by submitting a single application, providing a single tryout brief and participating in a single oral argument.
Eligibility
You are eligible to try out during the spring 2008 tryout period if you will be a full-time, third-year student or a part-time, fourth-year student during the 2008-2009 school year. In addition, to try out you must either have successfully completed Appellate Advocacy or be enrolled in a spring 2008 section of the course (if you are presently enrolled, placement on a team will be conditioned on your passing the course). Finally, you must be in good academic standing (and remain in good academic standing during the time that you are serving on a team).
Registering to Try Out
The first thing you must do is join the Moot Court Tryout TWEN page NO LATER THAN 6 P.M. ON FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008. On WestLaw, go to TWEN. Click on “Add Course.” Scroll down to and select “Moot Court Tryouts.” Push “submit.” You must be registered on the TWEN page by the April 18 deadline even if you have not submitted any other documentation. This will allow the Board to determine with some precision the number of candidates and to schedule accordingly. Be certain that your registered e-mail address is for an account you check regularly. Much important information regarding the tryout process will be distributed via TWEN page e-mail. Therefore, you should check your e-mail daily until the process completes. Failure to promptly read an e-mail message will not be an acceptable excuse for noncompliance with any tryout requirement. In addition, you should check the TWEN page frequently – information may be posted on a piecemeal basis as it becomes available. WE CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH: YOU MUST READ YOUR E-MAIL AT LEAST ONCE A DAY – EVEN AFTER YOU HAVE SUBMITTED ALL INFORMATION AND COMPLETED YOUR ORAL ARGUMENT – UNTIL TEAM MEMBERS ARE ANNOUNCED OR RISK DISQUALIFICATION.
The Tryout Process
Candidates will be scored on the basis of their written tryout brief and a 7 to 10-minute oral argument presented before a panel of judges selected by the Board. Your tryout brief will be the final brief you submitted in your Appellate Advocacy course and will be scored anonymously and without regard to the grade you received in the course. The subject of your oral argument will be the problem covered in Appellate Advocacy. Judges for both the oral argument and your brief may be Moot Court team coaches (though not necessarily the coach of a team you wish to join), practicing attorneys or currently-enrolled students who have served on Moot Court teams.
Logistics
Within the next week the Board will provide information on how to arrange for your Appellate Advocacy brief to be turned over to the Board and how to register for an oral argument time. We must receive your brief directly from your Appellate Advocacy instructor. The Board will not accept briefs directly from students. As part of the tryout you will also be asked to submit an application form on which you must represent that you received no unauthorized assistance in writing your brief, provide identifying information and list the teams for which you wish to be considered. On this form you must also rank teams according to your preference. Time slots are expected to be available throughout exam period.
Academic Credit
Students competing on a Moot Court team during the 2008-2009 school year must register for two units of academic credit in the semester in which their team participates in competitive oral arguments.
Your Role on a Team
Some teams have specially-designated brief writers who do not argue and oral advocates who do not write the brief. Some teams designate a lead brief writer who is assisted by other team members. Other teams distribute brief-writing responsibility equally. If you would like details on the policy of the teams that interest you, please contact the specific coaches listed below.
Time Commitment and Responsibilities
Students who serve on Moot Court teams receive benefits from the Law School not enjoyed by other students. These benefits include (but are not limited to) extensive and ongoing feedback from Faculty coaches as well as paid travel to competitions. Providing these benefits requires the expenditure of Law School resources which, as a result, can not made available to other students. The Board and the Faculty expect students chosen for teams to take full advantage of these benefits by demonstrating a high degree of commitment to the team effort and a professional work ethic. Although the commitment varies from team to team, you should expect to devote substantial time to your Moot Court responsibilities, comparable to that which a very hard-working student would commit to a very demanding course. In addition to fulfilling any brief-writing responsibilities, students are expected to regularly attend team practices. Students must also devote substantial time outside of practice to researching issues that emerge in practice or otherwise refining arguments.
Student do not automatically receive academic credit simply because they are selected for a Moot Court team. As in any other course, the credit must be earned. Although so far it has never happened, coaches may remove people from a team, withdraw the team from a competition, and/or deny credit and report a grade of “unsatisfactory” if the coach feels that a student is not fulfilling his or her responsibilities to the team.
Students selected for a Moot Court team are automatically appointed to the Moot Court Board, an honorary society. Although the bulk of the Board’s work is performed by elected executive members, non-executive members may occasionally be called upon to assist in general Moot Court activities.
Moot Court Fellows
A limited number of people who will be full-time, second-year or part-time, third-year students in 2008-2009 will be selected as “Moot Court Fellows” early in the fall 2008 semester. Fellows are apprentices assigned to particular teams. They assist in practices, provide other general assistance to the Moot Court Program, and travel with the teams to competitions at school expense. Fellows also serve as bailiffs or timekeepers at some competitions. Fellows are selected in the fall of their year of service and must commit to complete Appellate Advocacy during that year of service, if they have not already done so. Moot Court Fellows should develop skills that will greatly enhance their performance if they ultimately compete on a team. Fellows are not guaranteed selection as a competitor on a Moot Court team, nor do they receive academic credit. However, we anticipate that the skills and experience gained by Fellows should place them among the strongest students who try out.
Available Teams
Philip J. Fulton Law Office National Moot Court Team
The Philip J. Fulton Law Office National Moot Court Team is Capital University Law School's most selective intercollegiate moot court team. It provides students with an intense intellectual challenge in a practice setting, with training from attorneys, judges, and faculty advisors.
In 2002, the Philip J. Fulton Law Office agreed to enhance the advocacy program at Capital University Law School by underwriting the Philip J. Fulton Law Office National Moot Court Team. The firm agreed to financially support the team with an annual contribution to be used towards expenses associated with competitions.
There are actually two Philip J. Fulton Law Office National Moot Court Teams, one competing in the fall and one in the spring.
The fall team competes in the National Moot Court Competition sponsored by the Committee of Young Lawyers of the New York City Bar Association. The problem for this competition is released around Labor Day, a written brief is due approximately in mid-October. Practices begin in mid-October and continue until the regional competition in approximately mid-November. If the team advances out of the regional competition, students would have additional practices in the month or so leading up to the national finals. For more information about this team, please e-mail Professor Lazaroff or Professor Cohen.
The spring team competes in the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition. The problem for this competition is typically released in early December and the written brief is typically due in early January, usually a week or two after spring semester begins. Thus, members of this team should plan to devote substantial time to brief writing over winter break. Practices run from January to the time of the regional competition, which can vary depending on the location which is chosen by the team. Students should plan to be available to practice from late January through March. If the team advances out of the regional competition, students would have additional practices in the month or so leading up to the national finals. For more information about this team, please e-mail Professor Blocher or Professor Anderson.
Corporate Law Moot Court Team
This team competes in the Ruby R. Vale Interschool Corporate Moot Court Competition at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. The problem is typically released in the third week of January and written briefs are due approximately one month later. Team practices occur from late February through the date of the competition in late March (competition is sometimes held during our spring break, sometimes a week before or a week after). For this team, students with an interest in corporate transactional law or corporate litigation are preferred. Please e-mail Professor Burch for more information.
Environmental Law Moot Court Team
This team competes in the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition at Pace Law School. The problem for this course is typically released in the first week of October and a written brief is due in the first week of December. Students will devote time to brief writing in November and December and participate in practices from January until the competition, typically in the third week of February. For more information about this team, please e-mail Professor Hirsch.
International Criminal Law Moot Court Team
This team has been created this year to compete in the Pace International Criminal Court Moot Competition (yes, “Court” comes before “Moot”). As of this time, the competition organizers have not confirmed all of the relevant dates. However, we believe that the problem will be released late spring or early summer 2008, with written “memorials” to be due in early September 2008 and oral arguments in late October. Thus, the bulk of the writing and research for this team will be done over the summer. Students who are interested in being a brief-writer only need not participate in oral argument tryouts. Please e-mail Professor Turack for information about this team.
Jessup International Law Moot Court Team
This team competes in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The problem for this competition is typically released on October 1 and a brief is due in early- to mid-January. Team practices occur in mid-January and continue until the competition in late February. For more information on this team, please e-mail Professor Snapp.
Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Team
This team competes in the Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Moot Court Competition at New York Law School. The competition problem is typically released in mid-December, a brief is typically due in late January, and oral arguments typically occur in early March. Students who have completed course work in labor or employment law or who have other experience in this area are preferred. For more information on this team, please e-mail Professor Weatherspoon.
Sports Law Moot Court Team
This team competes in the Mardis Gras Invitational Sports Law Competition at Tulane University. In recent years, the problem has been released in mid-October, with a brief due in early January. The oral argument competition takes place in late January or early February. For this team, a single designated brief-writer will produce the brief with the assistance of other students, but will not participate in oral arguments. The brief-writer will travel with the team to the competition. Please e-mail Professor Turack with information about this team.
For information about specific teams, please contact the professors listed above.
For information about tryouts in general, the Moot Court Board or the Fellows program, please contact Professor Cohen or Heather George, Chief Justice of the Moot Court Board.
