
The Moot Court Board facilitates several competitions at the law school every year. For more information regarding a competition that you are interested in, please contact the in-house competition chair.
Each competition has certain eligibility rules. All participants must be in good academic standing and have at least a 2.0 to compete.
The winning team from in-house competitions usually advances to regional competitions. In some instances, winners of a regional competition will move on to a national competition.
The Board has compiled a streaming video library of training sessions and exhibition rounds, as well as recordings of our Bond and Tausend Appellate competitions, which you can access from the Moot Court multimedia library. You will also find resources on our General Advocacy Bibliography page, and popular briefs are available on Westlaw and Lexis.
As a first year law student, your time will be extremely limited by your studies. Please be aware that competitions require a lot of time and energy, especially for first year students who have yet to take Legal Writing II.
Per the administration, first year participation in moot competition is limited to one competition. The 1L competition occurs in the spring.
Competitors are entitled to file a complaint about a competition round within 5 minutes of the close of that round. You may download and print a complaint form (PDF).
Volunteer attorneys provide the Seattle University School of Law a great service by giving up their limited free time to judge, coach, and work with student competitors. Please keep this in mind should you consider dropping out of a competition. Unless otherwise specified, the drop deadline for all trial competitions (Mock Trial and Administrative Law) and Legal Writing II competitions (James Bond and Tausend) is one (1) week prior to the date of the competition, and the drop deadline for all other competitions is one (1) week prior to the due date of the briefs. See below for additional information and penalties.
A. A brief for any competition received after 10 pm on the day the administrative committee established as the brief due date, will not be accepted nor graded for the competition.
B. This rule shall not operate as a bar to participation in the oral round of the competition in which the late brief was filed.
Regional and National teams benefit from a modest budget that pays for competition-related expenses, including travel and housing. Administrators will also arrange for faculty and practitioner assistance in accordance with the rules of the competition, including practice rounds and oral critiques.
Qualification and Competition Selection. To participate in most regional and invitational competitions, you must win an in-house competition of the corresponding type (i.e., you must win an In-House Mock Trial Competition to advance to a Mock Trial Regional Competition and you must win an In-House Appellate Competition to advance to a Regional or Invitational Appellate Competition). After you have been offered a position on a team, you and your teammates must choose a competition from the list below. Once you have been offered a chance to compete at a regional or invitational competition, we will not withdraw that invitation so long as you continue to follow your coaches' instructions, the Board's direction, and the competition rules.
The winners of the James Bond In-House Appellate Competition will advance to the American Bar Association Regional Competition, which is held in the spring following the Bond Competition. The winners of the Fred Tausend In-House Appellate Competition will advance to the National Moot Court Regional Competition in the fall following the Tausend competition. For a more comprehensive look at the qualification procedure, please take a look at our Regional Qualification Chart (PDF).
Each in-house competition will produce one regional or invitational competition team. Often, however, the Board fields an additional team composed of in-house participants in order to ensure Seattle University's success in the regional or invitational competition. Places on this additional team will be offered to the remaining in-house competitors in the order in which they placed at the in-house competition.
Although two students may have been partners in the in-house competition, there is no guarantee that they will be partners for the regional or invitational competition. The Board and the regional coaches will determine the composition of the competition team(s) with the goal of maximizing the chances that Seattle University will succeed at the competition. In the event a qualifying in-house competitor cannot compete in a regional competition, that person's place will be offered to the remaining in-house competitors in the order in which they placed.
There may be times when one spot may be offered to two partners who are next in line to compete. In such a case, the partners must choose between themselves to decide which one will advance to the competition. If the partners cannot decide, then the Board will choose between them, usually by random selection.
The National Black Law Student Association (NBLSA) sponsors two regional competitions for their members: the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition and the Frederick Douglass Appellate Competition. BLSA members may not compete in these regional competitions unless they participate in the In-House Mock Trial Competition (to qualify for Marshall) or In-House Appellate Competition (to qualify for Douglass). To qualify, a BLSA member must inform the in-house administrators before the in-house competition that she/he wants to compete for a chance to compete in the Thurgood Marshall or Frederick Douglass competition. Positions on the Marshall and Douglass teams will be offered to those BLSA members in the order they place in the in-house competition.
BLSA members may of course participate in in-house competitions in order to qualify for other competitions, but may only qualify for one regional competition per in-house competition.
The Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition was established in 1990 in honor of Saul Lefkowitz, a Chairman of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Competition is an annual event consisting of Regional Competitions in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Francisco, and a Final National Competition in Washington, DC, USA.
The objective of the Competition is to introduce law students to important issues arising in U.S. trademark and unfair competition law. Law students who participate in the Competition have the opportunity to develop their brief writing and oral advocacy skills in a mock courtroom experience.
The appeal is argued before distinguished jurists from the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the USPTO and judges from various district and other courts. During National Finals, cash prizes totaling up to US $8,500 are awarded.
Judge Evans, an 1899 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1916 to 1948. He maintained strong ties to the University of Wisconsin, serving as trustee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, as president of the Alumni Association, and as a member of the Board of Visitors.
While on the bench, Judge Evans asked for and received a separation of the duties handled by the circuit and district courts, so that the district courts handled all of the trial work while the circuit court dealt only with the growing number of appeals. Judge Evans' request to physically separate the courts resulted in the construction of the U.S. Court of Appeals building at 1212 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.
The University of Wisconsin Law School Moot Court Board is pleased to honor the career of Evan A. Evans by inviting schools to argue constitutional issues in the hope of living up to his high standard of appellate advocacy. Judge Evans, noted during his years of private practice for both his brief-writing and his outstanding oral advocacy, left as his legacy a standard of excellence in the field of appellate advocacy which inspired the dedication of this competition.
Note: Please refer to the provided links to obtain up-to-date information about important dates and deadlines.
Seattle University School of Law
Moot Court Board
Sullivan Hall 106
Seattle, WA 98122-1090
Fax: 206-398-4345
Kristen Ferkich, Chair
Email: kferkich@seattleu.edu
Bradley Marshall, Vice Chair
Email: bmarshall2@seattleu.edu
For information about judging opportunities, please contact Judge Relations Chair Davis Haas, 2L.