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2009 Moot Court National Champions
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Success in 2007-08!
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Moot Court
The Moot Court Board of Advocates is a formally recognized student organization comprised of talented and energetic leaders with strong communication and organizational skills. The Board and its faculty advisors are responsible for the Law School’s moot court program, which is designed to shape law students into persuasive communicators and advocates. The program offers students a practical educational experience through a specific advocacy course, multiple competitive opportunities, and faculty, practioner, and student exhibitions.
Moot Court Success
The Moot Court 2008-09 season officially has begun and UDM School of Law’s Moot Court Team is starting out strong!
Jessup International Moot Court Competition
Regional Finialist
Sunday, February 15, 2009 by Cara L. Cunningham
Please join me in congratulating our Jessup team of Robert Walker, Amanda Gossai, Carla Hanneman, Yalda Riahi, and Shannon Snee. Today, by virtue of their second-place finish at the Jessup Midwest Super Regional (a list of competing schools can be found at http://www.ilsa.org/jessup/national/us/us-mw.pdf) these students have won a berth at the Jessup International Rounds in Washington, D.C. This is a first for our UDM program.
For those of you interested in the fine details, UDM School of Law was ranked 8th after the four preliminary rounds and were slotted to compete against Case Western (1st seed) in the quarter-final round. Case Western was the World Champion last year, and many of their competitors this year were members of that world championship team. UDM beat Case Western Saturday night in head-to-head competition. We then went on to beat John Marshall in the semi-final round this morning. We lost narrowly to Northwestern in the final round.
The UDM and Northwestern teams will represent the Midwest Region and will have the opportunity to compete against students from Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Guyana, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Panama, Puerto Rico, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, and West Indies.
UDM wins Texas National Invitational!
2009 Moot Court National Championship
School was Only Law School in Michigan Invited to Compete,
Bested Numerous Championship Teams from Law Schools Across the Country
Detroit, January 22, 2008 – The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (UDM Law) announced today that its Moot Court team won the first annual 2009 Moot Court National Championship, hosted by the University of Houston Law Center. UDM Law was invited to compete as one of the top 16 moot court programs in the country based on competition results from the 2007-2008 season.
According to the University of Houston Law Center, “each of the 16 finalists made it to the National Championship the old-fashioned way: they earned it by achieving outstanding results at ‘open’ moot court tournaments that any team can enter. Using a list of 34 open tournaments, the University of Houston Law Center developed a qualifying formula for the Moot Court National Championship.”
The 16 finalists consisted of law schools from around the country including Campbell University;
Chicago-Kent College of Law; DePaul University; George Mason University; Harvard Law School (while Harvard was invited to participate, it did not field a team); Loyola University – Chicago; Mercer University; Regent University; Seton Hall University; South Texas College of Law; University of California – Davis; University of California – Hastings; University of Colorado; University of Detroit Mercy; University of Memphis; and the University of Miami.
“We know that our students’ advocacy skills are the best in the nation and it is gratifying to see that recognized in open competition,” said Mark Gordon, Dean of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
UDM Law’s Moot Court team was represented by students Jennifer Dukarski, Daniel Whittal, and Shannon Snee. The team was coached by Professor Michelle Streicher, who directs UDM Law’s championship moot court program.
In the final round, UDM Law, seeded third in the semifinals, beat number one seeded Regent University. All rounds were conducted in the Federal Courthouse in downtown Houston, and many were judged by members of the judiciary and prominent attorneys.
In addition to winning the first annual 2009 Moot Court National Championship, UDM Law won the Chicago Bar Association Moot Court Tournament in November and was named regional semi-finalists at the New York City Bar Association National Moot Court Competition.
UDM Law attributes its win, in part, to its advocacy program. Students are selected in the summer to serve on the UDM Law Moot Court Board of Advocates. New members participate in an Advanced Advocacy course (co-taught by Professor Michelle Streicher and Assistant Dean Cara Cunningham) where they are exposed to various oral and written persuasion techniques. The class also includes a hands-on workshop with Second City improvisation actors who coach the students on voice control, diction, and body language. The Board is comprised of a very competitive and caring group of dedicated students.
more >>UDM Selected for National Moot Court Compeition
UDM School of Law's Moot Court program has been selected to participate in the first-ever National Moot Court Invitational Tournament being held in January 2009 at the University of Houston. The top 16 Moot Court programs in the country will be competing in this event. UDM was selected based on the success of our Moot Court programs over the last academic year in qualifying national competitions.
