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Moot Court Teams Bring Home Big Victories


The Bankruptcy Appellate Team: (L to R) Coach John Mattoon, team members Anna Burns and Robert Sitman, and coach Robert English.

2006–2007 was a championship year for Brooklyn Law School’s Moot Court Program. Our law student teams brought home four national titles—in bankruptcy, immigration, ethics and civil rights law competitions—and top regional titles in the nation’s most prestigious trial advocacy matches, plus many individual honors.

Each year, the Law School fields about 20 appellate advocacy teams and 10 trial advocacy teams who score top prizes in interscholastic simulated trials, but this was one of the best years on record:

  • The Brooklyn Law School Bankruptcy Appellate Advocacy Team placed first in a field of 42 teams in the Duberstein National Bankruptcy Memorial Moot Court Competition, which is judged by the nation’s leading federal bankruptcy jurists.


  • The Brooklyn Law School Immigration Team bested Georgetown University Law School in the semi-finals and Harvard Law School in the finals to take first place in the Annual Immigration Law Competition.


  • The Brooklyn Law School Ethics Trial Advocacy team won first place against a strong national field at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law’s competition, defeating Southwestern Law School in the finals.


  • The Brooklyn Law School Civil Rights Trial Advocacy Team II beat the University of Florida Levin College of Law at the St. John’s University Polestino Trial Advocacy Institute National Civil Rights Trial Competition, which is judged by leading national trial experts.

The Ethics Trial Advocacy Team: (L to R) Allison McKenzie, Jannine Rowser, Mark Antar, and Lynette Lockhart.

Brooklyn Law School was also the regional powerhouse at the New York City Bar’s Annual National Moot Court Competition, defeating Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in the semi-finals and New York University School of Law in the finals. In the national rounds, Brooklyn Law placed among the top eight teams out of over 100 schools in this competition.

Brooklyn Law students also took the top regional prizes at the two oldest and most prestigious trial advocacy competitions in the country—the Texas Young Lawyers Association National Trial Competition and the American Association for Justice Student Trial Advocacy Competition. It is unusual to qualify for national rounds in both these competitions in the same year. Other Brooklyn Law School winners this year were the Trademark Team, the First Amendment Team, the Florida Tax Team, the White Collar Crimes Team and the Sports Law Team. Student competitors traveled widely to participate in the matches—to Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas and California, among other states.

“We are very proud of these students, who are true intellectual athletes,” said Dean Joan G. Wexler, “They worked hard and achieved great victories. In fact, an overwhelming majority of our moot court teams advance to the second round of competition and beyond. We applaud our creative and committed Moot Court Honor Society, and the strong support the students receive from faculty and alumni.”

“BLS does an amazing job,” said Sabrina Thanse, Class of 2007, President of the student-run Moot Court Honor Society, with about 160 members. “We have a huge pool of naturally talented advocates and the institutional commitment to back them up, including a great first-year program to introduce new students to the Moot Court Program.”

To prepare for competition, students can spend up to 25 hours a week for six weeks practicing their oral arguments. The demanding appellate competitions require written briefs; the trial advocacy competitions require exceptional knowledge of evidentiary rules; and both demand the ability to answer challenging legal questions from panels of jurists and lawyers. School spirit and camaraderie are strengthened through the Moot Court Program, along with oral advocacy and writing skills, which are essential to the practice of law.

View all 2006-2007 moot court competition results.



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This page last modified on: July 30, 2007.