Moot Court

Many students are very active in the Moot Court program at Penn Law, both at the Law School and on Penn Law teams that attend other competitions. Faculty offer support and encouragement to students who become involved in the Moot Court program, recognizing its immense value for the participants.

2L Program

Appellate Advocacy II is Penn Law’s second-year intramural Moot Court competition. Participants research and write a brief and then present their case in one or perhaps two rounds of oral arguments before a panel of students, faculty, practitioners, and judges. The results are then ranked.

3L Program

From the 2 L rankings,

The top four students become the Keedy Cup Team who then work on a new brief in the fall semester, and then argue before a panel of distinguished jurists.
The next three students represent Penn Law at the National Moot Court Competition (Bar Association, New York City)
The next 14 students become members of The Moot Court Board who are responsible for preparing problems and reviewing the work of the contestants.

In recent years, students have formed their own teams and participated in various Moot Court competitions including the Merna B. Marshall Moot Court Competition (Federal Bar Association, Philadelphia Chapter), the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition (National Black Law Student Association), and the Jessup Cup Competition (Columbia Law School).

2007 Jessup Moot Court Team

The Jessup is an international law moot court competition which involves more than 600 schools from 100 countries. Penn Law's team won the regional competition in February (including the first place award for their memorial [brief] and Alasdair Henderson GL'07's fourth place speaker award) which entitled them to March 25-31 in Washington D.C. They were ranked first in the world after the preliminary rounds with the highest raw score of any team in the 50 year history of the competition. Unfortunately the team lost a competitive run off round to the University of Ottawa so did not win the overall competition.

Penn Law won awards for the second best brief in the world.
Keola Whittaker L'07 won a prize for the 3rd best oralist, 1st place in the U.S.
Omar Pringle L'08 and Alisdar Henderson GL'07 tied for 8th best oralist in the competition, 4th place in the U.S.
Penn Law won more awards than any other school.
Other members of the team included Misha Isaak L'08 and Haley McLoranin GL'07.
Faculty Advisor: William Burke-White

2007 National Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition

This year's Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition began with approximately 140 teams competing from six different regions across the country.

Two two-person Penn Law teams placed in the top three at the Mid-Atlantic BLSA Regional Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition in Pittsburgh, PA and advanced as one of approximately 18 teams to the National Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition in Atlanta, GA from March 21-25, 2007 during the 39th Annual National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) Convention.

Brandon Gay L'07 and Korey T. Taylor L'08, who finished second in the Mid-Atlantic region in oral arguments and also earned the regional award for Best Petitioner Brief.
Nicholas Murphy L'08 and Joelle Webb L'07, who finished third in the Mid-Atlantic region in oral arguments.

At the Nationals in Atlanta both teams performed well and were given positive comments on their advocacy skills, though neither team placed on the platform for oral arguments.

Brandon Gay L'07 and Korey T. Taylor L'08 won the National Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition Award for Best Petitioner Brief.
The Award for Best Petitioner Brief was awarded from a field of at least 65+ teams as the briefing sides were approximately evenly divided under the rules. In oral argument, teams would then have to be prepared to argue both sides and would learn which side they would argue 30 minutes before each round.

Faculty Advisor: Regina Austin