February 1, 2013 — The University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law’s National Moot Court Team received the “Best Brief” award at the National Moot Court Finals, held January 28-31 in New York City. This year, 131 team participated in the competition and 30 teams advanced to the finals.
The College of Law team, consisting of Laurie Abbott, Dick Baldwin and Nate Mitchell, won its first two rounds against the teams from Drake Law School and Ohio State University College of Law. In its third round, however, the team was narrowly defeated by the team from Roger Williams University School of Law.
Team coach Troy Booher praised both the team’s performance and the excellence of its award-winning brief, and predicted that, “They have set the bar for brief writing as high as possible for future S.J. Quinney College of Law teams.”
Booher further noted that, “The team would not have performed so well without two helpful practice rounds.” He thanked Jess Krannich (’05), Jonathan Pappasideris (’03), and Cheylynn Hayman (’03) for presiding over the first practice round, and Professors Robert Adler and Clifford Rosky for presiding over the second round.
Booher also thanked Carolynn Westenskow and Baiba Hicks for their work on travel and logistics.
Since 1950, the New York City Bar and the American College of Trial Lawyers have sponsored the National Moot Court Competition. According to its sponsors, the “nationally recognized competition allows law students to hone their appellate advocacy skills by arguing before prominent members of [the legal] profession.”