Early to Court: a record of success in student moot court competitions

It was another year of think-on-your-feet experiences for UB Law students who took advantage of the school's array of opportunities to hone their legal skills in moot court competitions nationwide.

View Photos from the Wechsler Law Moot Court Competition

From Boston to Cleveland, Toronto to Sacramento, students defended briefs and argued both sides in competitions that helped to make them practice-ready in such areas as tax, criminal law, international law, environmental law, mediation and ethics.

Melinda Saran, vice dean for student affairs, provides administrative support to the moot court and trial technique program, which is overseen by the student-run Buffalo Moot Court Board. Erie County Court Judge Thomas P. Franczyk leads the school's Trial Teams.

View Photos from the Albert R. Mugel National Tax Court Competition

"Our students continue to work hard and have success at these competitions," Saran says. "The number of competitions has grown tremendously, and our faculty who are teaching in applicable content specific areas have become involved in working with our students and helping them to perform to the best of their ability."

Among the highlights of the moot court year:

In February, a case brief by UB Law's international-law Jessup Moot Court Team bested those of teams from 23 other law schools, including Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Boston College and Boston University, in a Northeast regional competition in New York City. The team's brief advanced to the international competition, to compete against the top briefs from every U.S. regional competition as well as the national competitions of countries worldwide.

The Jessup team consisted of Melanie Beardsley, Pasquale Bochiechio, Kathryn D'Angelo and Max Lafer, and was coached by Darice Dinsmore and Kevin Espinosa.

Also in February, UB Law was represented by six teams at the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition in Springfield, Mass., a competition sponsored the National Black Law Students Association.

First-year student Anant Kishore was named Best Oral Advocate in the Northeast Region. Two UB Law teams – Jonathan Pollard and Jawziya Zaman, and Tinu Awoyomi and Irina Barahona – advanced to the quarterfinals of the competition. UB Law student Siana J. McLean served as Northeast Region director for the competition.

In late February, UB Law's Trial Team of Josh Agins, Kristina Russell and Scott Iseman advanced to the National Trial Competition regional semifinals in New York City before being eliminated by the host school, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mark Foti, a member of UB's second team, was named Best Advocate in the preliminary rounds.

In the Albert R. Mugel National Tax Court competition, hosted by UB Law School, Sam Feuerstein tied for the second-best oralist and Darice Dinsmore was named fifth-best oralist. The UB teams fell just short of reaching the semifinal round. 

In March, UB Law's team of Erin Cody, Tom Lang and Taiymoor Naqi, coached by Professor and Vice Provost Lucinda Finley, did extremely well at the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Northeast Regional competition in Boston. This is the largest and most prestigious appellate moot court competition in the nation.

The UB Law team had the fourth-best overall brief and reached the final round, where it actually earned more points from all the judges than its opponent. But due to a scoring change that was instituted last year, our team was officially declared the runner-up.

Naqi also earned one of the highest oral argument scores in the competition, and both he and Lang earned perfect scores from some of the judges. In the championship round, Lang's average score from the five judges was 95 points out of 100.

In the Fasken-Martineau International Law competition, held in Toronto in March, UB Law's team of first-year students was commended by several different judges for its level of preparation, complexity of argument and command of international law principles. In addition, team member Michael Gellar was recognized with an honorable mention award as Best Oralist.

Also in March, in the Ceremonial Courtroom of State Supreme Court in Buffalo, the Herbert J. Wechsler National Criminal Moot Court Competition was held. The Buffalo Criminal Moot Court Society was praised by participating teams for the well-run competition and the strength of the competition's judges. In the final round, the judges panel included Justice Eugene F. Pigott Jr. '73 of the state Court of Appeals; retired Court of Appeals Justice George Bundy Smith, now a partner in Chadbourne & Parke in New York City; U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman of Rochester; and State Supreme Court Justice Kevin M. Dillon '76.