CULSnet - Guidelines for Judges

Thanks for agreeing to serve as a Official Practice Round Judge for Capital's National Moot Court Team. Our success depends on the efforts of local judges and attorneys who take the time to help us in this way.

All practice rounds are held in the Law School. Room locations are listed on the practice schedule posted on this site. If you have difficulty locating a room inside the building, please ask the security attendant for assistance.

Parking is permitted in the Law School Lots - tell the Security Guards you are visiting the Law School as a Moot Court Judge.

For your convenience we will e-mail you a copy of the problem when you register. Briefs submitted by the students will count toward at least 1/3 of their score in each round of the competition, but judges in the oral argument rounds will not have seen the students actual briefs and will not, therefore, have the opportunity to ask students questions about material appearing in their briefs. Accordingly, we have not supplied you with their actual briefs. There may be additional cases or arguments, not previously considered by our students, that you think are relevant to the issues involved in the case. Feel free to raise these lines of argument or authority to the students during or after the practice argument.

Practice rounds take between 30-45 minutes for each 2-student team. Each student argues for 15 minutes. Afterwards we hope you will take some time to provide feedback to the students about their style and substance. Because of constraints imposed by the rules of the fall semester competition, usually only one 2 person team will argue at each practice round.

When serving as a practice round judge you should look for and provide feedback to the students about the following aspects of their argument:

Their professional demeanor, both at the podium and at counsel table during the argument;
The clear organization of their argument;
Their knowledge of the record;
Their familiarity with the controlling precedents;
The substantive persuasiveness of their arguments in light of the limitations imposed by the facts and the law (without reference to your own particular opinion about how the issue should be resolved). Did they make the most persuasive argument that could be made in support of their client's position;
Their ability to answer questions directly;
Their skill at using answers to questions to seamlessly work their way back into the organizational structure of their argument;
Their ability to stay in control of the argument;
The clarity of their language and explanations or arguments;
Their use of sound policy considerations to support their client's positions.

You should also be familiar with the inherent limitations involved in Moot Court Competitions of the kind for which our team is preparing. Most importantly, the record on appeal is extraordinarily limited. It usually consists of nothing more than a District Court's "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law" and a Court of Appeals' opinion affirming or reversing the District Judge's ruling. There is no transcript; nor is there usually documentary evidence or deposition transcripts. The students are stuck with the stipulated findings of fact or factual findings or allegations (if the case was dismissed on a 12(b)(6) motion) mentioned in the court opinions. Almost always additional pieces of information lawyers arguing the case would know are conspicuously missing. In Moot Court the most the students can do is make an inference about the presence or absence of these missing facts and try to remind the judges that it's not real court with a real record on appeal.

Each fall our team prepares for the National Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Each spring the team prepares for oral arguments in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition, sponsored by the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association.

To get to Room 204, enter through the back lobby (on Capital Street at the rear of the building). Go up the stairs in the lobby. At the top of the stairs continue straight through the door, just to the right of the 3 elevators. Once through this door and inside the hallway, the door to Room 204 will be facing you, a few steps away. Room 202, where practices are sometimes held, if Room 204 is busy, will be right next to Room 204, on the right. If you enter through the front of the building, on Broad Street, you will be on the 2nd floor immediately upon entering. Walk straight through the front lobby, as far back as you can go, until you reach a perpendicular hallway, in front of several glass-cased cabinets on the wall. Turn left, toward the bank of elevators which you will see, down the way, on the left. Just past these 3 elevators, turn left again and go through the door into a hallway. Room 204 will be straight ahead, with Room 202 on your right, a few steps away.

The best place to park is in the Law School Faculty/Staff lot at the SW corner of Broad and Grant, accessible from "Capital" street, running parallel to Broad, just behind the Law School. It can be reached from Grant Street. Unfortunately, it tends to be full until just after 5 p.m.. Alternatively, you can park in the lot behind the vacant Seneca Hotel, just south of Broad, on the East side of Grant. Sometimes spaces are also available in the Law School lot immediately behind the Law School - but be careful not to park in the private lot just beside it, on the east side of the alley. It is well marked as not for anyone associate with Capital. Parking may also be available on the street nearby the Law School or in commercial lots nearby. However, parking is usually prohibited on Broad Street after 4 p.m. and the City will tow you away.