Live blogging from the National Moot Court Competition

The national final rounds of the National Moot Court Competition kicked off last night in Manhattan, hosting 30 teams from the 15 regional rounds that took place in November. After two preliminary rounds, we're now at 16 teams, with the rest of the tournament following a "March Madness" elimination-style format. The octafinals and quarterfinals are Wednesday, while the semifinals and championship match take place Thursday.

The 16 octafinalists, in order of their seeds and preliminary round records:

1. Texas Tech University School of Law (2-0)
2. Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2-0)
3. University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Law (2-0)
4. Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law (2-0)
5. University of Iowa College of Law (2-0)
6. University of Kansas School of Law (2-0)
7. Regent University School of Law (2-0)
8. Stetson University College of Law (1-1)
9. University of Houston Law Center (1-1)
10. Loyola University New Orleans College of Law (1-1)
11. Creighton University School of Law (1-1)
12. Seton Hall University School of Law (1-1)
13. University of Colorado at Boulder Law School (1-1)
14. University of California Berkeley School of Law (1-1)
15. Seattle University School of Law (1-1)
16. Pepperdine University School of Law (1-1)

South Texas tightens grip on rule of moot court universe

South Texas College of Law won the fourth annual Moot Court National Championship competition today, besting 15 other top moot programs for ultimate appellate advocacy supremacy.* Saint Louis University School of Law finished second at the tournament, which is hosted by the University of Houston Law Center's Blakely Advocacy Institute and underwritten by a number of law firms, including the competition's main sponsor, Andrews Kurth, LLP. Florida Coastal School of Law and Stetson University College of Law finished as semifinalists.

South Texas hoisted the Best Brief trophy above its mighty head, while Alexander Landback from the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law was declared the nation's Best Speaker.

* Yes, there is some sarcasm to my voice. I poke fun not at South Texas, who, as everyone knows, IS the Emperor of the moot court universe, whether they have a Death Star tournament trophy to prove it or not. Hats off to them for an impressive run -- they were the only team to go undefeated in the prelims and continued that run en route to the title. But having attended the competition with my own team, it was somewhat amusing to hear the UH folks talk at every turn about how this is the TRUE national championship. And, hell, it may be. The level of competition, as it is every year, was incredibly fierce.

But I'm still disappointed that Houston chooses to run a behind-closed-doors competition, as opposed to the two other "major" tournaments (the National Moot Court Competition and ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition), where transparency seems to be the goal. I don't understand why other teams' identities and brief scores, as well as round results, need to be a secret. Blakely Director Jim Lawrence has told me in the past that he believes making such information public at the outset "changes things," and while I guess that's true in some respects, we ARE talking about a gathering of the best teams in the country. Can we not assume that our students are going to bring their "A Games" every time out? If you're 0-3 heading into your last round, doesn't it stand to reason that you're going to give it all you've got to pull out at least one win? If you're 3-0, wouldn't you think you'd be just as motivated to win and capture the #1 seed?

I also fail to see why we can't use our own timekeepers, as is the case at the NMCC and NAAC. In our last round, the UH student baliffing held up a "Stop" card to my advocate who still had one minute left of rebuttal time (without holding up any other previous time card to warn him that the "Stop" card was on its way). It resulted in an awkward exchange between the judge and advocate (and ultimately a terse instruction from the judge to sit down) that was entirely avoidable.

Anyway, just some grumblings from a coach likely fueled by disappointment that his team didn't finish better. Not that anything I just mentioned had anything to do with our finish (it didn't). Most everything else at the tournament was great, including a fantastic closing banquet at Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse attended by lots of lawyers from the sponsoring firms and real judges from both Texas and federal courts -- cool networking opportunity for the students.

I hope to have the opportunity to bring a team back next year...

Thirty-one-year-old moot court competition benched due to lack of funds

Interesting article my Google News Alerts sent me today about the Hulsey-Kimbrell Moot Court Competition, which is an annual courtroom showdown between the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law and the University of Georgia School of Law that is "played" on the same day as the undergraduate football game between the two SEC schools.

As you can see in this article from the Jacksonville Financial News & Daily Record, the competition has been canceled this year because nobody could come up with the money to fund the two schools' travel costs.

That's a shame. Seems like a pretty cool tradition -- one that dates back 31 years. Hopefully, they'll get things in order by next year.

Florida Coastal wins at NLLSA

Florida Coastal School of Law was crowned National Champion at the Fourth Annual National Latino/a Law Student Association Moot Court Competition, which took place during the NLLSA annual conference September 29 through October 1 in New Orleans. Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law came in second place, while Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and a second Florida Coastal team rounded out the final four. Fifteen teams from 12 different law schools competed.

Northern Kentucky was awarded Best Petitioner Brief, and South Texas College of Law took home honors for the Best Respondent Brief. Northern Kentucky's Jeremiah Schlotman was the tournament's Best Oralist.

William & Mary repeats at Pretrial

William & Mary Law School won its second consecutive championship at the National Pretrial Advocacy Competition this weekend, prevailing over 15 other teams in what is a mixture of moot court, mock trial, and brief writing skills. Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center was the finalist team, with Chapman University School of Law finishing in third and Georgetown University Law Center taking fourth.

Charleston School of Law, competing in the tournament for its first time, took home Best Brief honors. Emily Rigg of William & Mary was the final round's Best Advocate.

Oral argument resources

Legal Skills Prof Blog has a nice post up today about some different sites to visit to prepare for oral argument. I'd add that St. Mary's University School of Law here in the Lone Star State carries live webcasts of Texas Supreme Court arguments, and archives those arguments for later viewing.

If only there were a law school that taught advocacy skills...

News from California, where this guy thinks it's a great idea to start a law school in the middle of the freaking desert because apparently there aren't any schools out there that teach litigation skills.

"I've been thinking about this for years," he said. "How come there's not a school where people can go if they want to become trial lawyers? This is a great opportunity."

Of course, there are a number of law schools that market themselves as places where students can study to become top-notch trial attorneys. It's not entirely clear whether Dolan has been living under a rock, or whether he just thinks those law schools aren't any good at what they teach. In any event, as I like to say, good luck with all that...