2/11/13: Charleston law students win national moot court competition -- again!
Release Date: 2/11/2013
Charleston law students win national moot court competition -- again!
On same weekend, team from Florida Coastal wins national competition in Charleston
CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 10, 2013 - - A three-person team from the Charleston School of Law on Saturday won the National Tax Moot Court competition in Florida for the second year in a row by besting 15 other teams from around the country.
“Winning once is a huge thing,” said Assistant Professor of Law Kristin Balding Gutting, the team’s faculty adviser. “Winning twice is quite a feat.” The national competition is considered the “Super Bowl” of tax moot courts for law students.
Also this weekend in Charleston, a two-person team from the Florida Coastal School of Law on Saturday won the sixth annual Charleston School of Law National Moot Court Competition. More information is below.
Meanwhile at the competition at Clearwater Beach in Florida, second-year Charleston School of Law students Lane Jefferies of Charleston, Gabe Hogan of Fort Worth, Texas, and Leslie Boodry of Pensacola, Fla., won the National Tax Moot Court Competition for the Charleston School of Law for the second year in a row. Jefferies also was named the competition’s Best Oralist, or contestant with the best oral presentation to the competition’s judges.
This year’s winning team was assisted by student coach Beverly Weshnak of Princeton, N.J. Last year, students Britni McCarson and Mary Abraham, both in their third year this year, won the competition.
Results of the Charleston School of Law National Moot Court Competition
Late Saturday in Charleston, Florida Coastal School of Law students Nina Cano and Alexandra Amador were named team champion in the Charleston School of Law’s sixth national Moot Court Competition. In 2012, a team from Florida Coastal came in second in the Charleston school’s annual competition.
This year, the Florida Coastal team bested 13 other teams from the 10 schools that took part in the competition. Cano also was named the Best Oralist, or contestant with the best oral presentation in the championship round before a group of judges.
Runner-up in the 14-team contest was the two-person team from William & Mary Law School: Katlin Cravatta and Jim Ogorzalek. Other honorees are listed below.
“This weekend’s sixth successful national moot court competition in constitutional law again demonstrates that our Charleston School of Law enjoys a national reputation, said Associate Professor of Law and moot court adviser Miller Shealy. “This year we attracted teams of students from as far away as Cincinnati and Massachusetts. Not only is our competition good for the school, but Charleston gets great exposure -- and business -- too!”
Competitors participating in the two-day event included teams from:
DePaul University College of Law
Florida Coastal School of Law
Florida State University College of Law
Howard University School of Law
Massachusetts School of Law
Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law
University of Cincinnati School of Law
University of Maryland School of Law
Widener University School of Law
William & Mary Law School
The moot court competition is an appellate advocacy competition in which students argue before a panel of moot court judges drawn from the faculty at the Charleston School of Law, local attorneys and area judges. The student competitors argue points of law as though they were appearing before the United States Supreme Court.
The teams in the Charleston competition grappled with a constitutional problem specially formulated for the event. This year’s issue called for competitors to debate the constitutionality of two issues. First, the problem focused whether a state can collect, maintain and use DNA samples the way it does with fingerprints. Second, it posed a question on the constitutionality of whether a state could abolish the so-called “insanity defense.”
Preliminary rounds were held Friday in the meeting rooms at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Charleston. Final rounds were Saturday. Winners in the competition, whose finals were judged by a team that included a S.C. Supreme Court justice, included:
Team Champion
Team C – Nina Cano, Alexandra Amador – Florida Coastal
Team Runner-Up
Team N – Katlin Cravatta, Jim Ogorzalek – William & Mary
Best Oralist Championship Round
Nina Cano – Team C, Florida Coastal
Best Petitioner’s Brief
Team H – Brian Goldberg, Ashley Vandeverder - Mercer
Best Respondent’s Brief
Team N – Katlin Cravatta, Jim Ogorzalek – William & Mary
Best Oralist Preliminary Rounds
Tab Bright – Team D, Florida State
Professionalism
Team E – Martha Tesfaye, Alyssa Scruggs - Howard
Semi-Finalists (2 plaques)
Team B – Amanda James, Job Fickett – Florida Coastal
Team M – Katie Adam, Philip McCarthy - Widener
Quarter-Finalists (4 plaques)
Team E - Martha Tesfaye, Alyssa Scruggs – Howard
Team H – Brian Goldberg, Ashley Vandeverder – Mercer
Team I – Taylor Brown, Lauren-Ashley Redmen – Mercer
Team K – Emily Patterson, Claire McBrien – Maryland
The school plans to have its seventh competition next February.
Contact: Andy Brack at 843.670.3996.