When mooters go bad

Above the Law has an amusing post today about what sounds like the most fun advocacy contest in the country: University of Virgina School of Law's intraschool William Lile Minor Moot Court Competition.

The substance of the post is really rather silly; it's essentially a bunch of whining about how the 3Ls at UVA are taking their competition too seriously.

But what I really liked (and laughed out loud at) was the intro:

I’ll admit, I did not participate in any kind of fake court moot court competitions during law school. It just wasn’t my thing. But for other students, moot court can be a really exciting way to pass the time while you are waiting for law school to stop charging you money. I totally respect that.

I may adopt that as the official tag line of The Bench Brief: "A weblog dedicated to the wide world of really exciting ways to to pass the time while you are waiting for law school to stop charging you money."

Learning advocacy skills from Obama

I've always wondered whether President Obama was a good "mooter" in law school. There's no question he's a brilliant orator, but frankly, I wasn't terribly impressed with his debating skills during the campaign. I always thought he came out on top, but let's shoot straight -- it's not as if John McCain was the second coming of Stephen A. Douglas. Heck, I don't even think you could say McCain's debate skills qualified him as the second coming of Stephen A. Smith. But I digress...

Regardless of his mooting abilities, law school advocates (and actual lawyers, for that matter) can learn a thing or two from watching this President speak. Check out this blog post, which extols the virtues of the all-important pause, used brilliantly by Obama the other night in his speech to Congress.

And yes, I've been waiting a very long time to find the right opportunity to link to the brilliant but-now-defunct Fire Joe Morgan blog. Miss those guys...

Thanks to fellow TechLaw prof Jennifer Horn for the tip...

How funny is your favorite SCOTUS justice?

Stats are here (via Above The Law). Not surprisingly, Scalia is the funniest, with Breyer running second (and apparently getting funnier as his years on the bench roll on). Justice Thomas isn't funny at all, but I guess it's hard to get laughs when you don't speak.