Student law advocates win awards in competitions

SMU's Board of Advocates congratulates Dedman School of Law's outstanding advocates who participated in recent off-campus and on-campus competitions.

Congratulations to the Moot Court National Championship Team:

Adam Doupe, Gemma Galeoto and Kevin Grubbs (as the dedicated brief writer) competed January 30-31 at the Moot Court National Championship Competition in Houston.  SMU placed second overall to John Marshall Law School in a very close final round before a prestigious panel that included two Fifth Circuit justices and one Texas Supreme Court justice.  The team was coached by Michael Ma of Burford & Ryburn L.L.P.
 
The MCNC competition is a new invitation only competition that is only in its second year.  The competition is limited to the top 16 schools across the nation based on points awarded for their moot court victories, best speaker, and best brief awards won in national or international level competitions from the previous year.  The competition is billed as: "A Moot Court Competition to determine the best of the best Moot Court programs." 

This year, SMU was invited to compete.   Each team was at the level seen in a final round of a national level competition.  There were four preliminary rounds and SMU came out with three wins and was seeded seventh out of the eight teams.  In the quarter-final round, SMU defeated the second-seeded Kentucky team and was one of the only two lower seeded teams to beat a higher seeded team and advanced to semi-finals. 
 
In the semi-final round, SMU faced the number one seeded team, South Texas, which was also the only team that went undefeated throughout the competition going into semi-finals. Once again, SMU defeated the higher seeded team, this time in front of a panel of Justices from the 1st and 14th Court of Appeals for Houston. 

Congratulations to the ABA Labor and Employment Mock Trial Competition Team:

Michael Thomas, Sara Stephens, Chetammia Holmes, Chris Harding, Nichole Plagens and Samantha Palma competed January 30-31 in the National Finals of the ABA Labor and Employment Mock Trial Competition in Washington, D.C.

Thomas and Stephens presented the defense side of the case while Holmes and Harding presented the plaintiff’s side. Palma and Plagens assisted the team as their alternates. Eddie Berbarie of Littler Mendelson coached the team.
 
The team first competed in the regional competition back in November and won.  With a win, they advanced to the national competition. At nationals, they finished 2nd place overall.  This is the third time that SMU has advanced to the national competition, but it is the first time SMU has had a team compete in the final round at nationals. 

1L Closing Argument Competition

The Board of Advocates recently held their on campus 1L Closing Argument Competition, which was won by Natasha Smiley.

# # #