Blog Entry 6

One of the best things about being a law school professor is having the opportunity to coach a Moot Court team.  This coming weekend, UDM will field a team at the Asylum Law Competition at UC-Davis in Sacramento.  The team (Joanne Golden, Scott Foess, and Kyle Butler) has been hard at work since early-December writing a professional-quality brief, crafting their legal arguments, and practicing for endless hours in front of panels of judges comprised of professors and practicing immigration attorneys.  The team is doing great and they have managed to quickly grasp an arcane sub-area of immigration law and to think on their feet under pressure.  In short, they have developed the skills that all attorneys need in private practice:  legal skill, intellectual discipline, time management and stress control. 

UDM’s Moot Court program has a reputation that is truly national and international.  I lose track of all of the tournaments we have won or placed although I am sure they are listed someplace on the UDM Law homepage.  We routinely bring home “best oral advocate” and “best brief” awards against other law schools that are more well-known or are thought to be more prestigious.  The Moot Court program just goes to show that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from.  What matters is how hard you work and the passion you bring to your cause. 

So, while I don’t want to jinx my team, I do think they will do well at the competition and, regardless of how they do, they have already exceeded my expectations in terms of their ability to dissect and analyze a complex legal issue and then present it in a cogent and compelling manner to a panel of judges.