Georgia State Law Moot Court team of Ethan Smith (J.D. ’18) (from left), Moot Court President Chris Guthrie (J.D. '17) and Peter Skaliy (J.D. ’17) advanced to the quarterfinals at the Duberstein Bankruptcy Competition.
Three of Georgia State Law’s moot court teams recently participated in international, national and regional competitions—earning honors at each.
Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
Katherine Krouse (J.D. ’18), Thomas Johnson (J.D. ’18), William Enfinger (J.D. ’18) and Meghan Gordon (J.D. ’17) competed in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in New Orleans. Jessup is the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from more than 550 law schools in 87 countries. The competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the United Nations.
Coached by David Grant Coyle (J.D. '17) and Phillip Kuck (J.D. '17), the Georgia State Law team competed in qualifying rounds in January and March. The team’s brief ranked among the top 10 in the south regional group, placing seventh.
Kuck, who competed at Jessup last year, was incredibly proud of the team’s preparation and performance.
“Jessup requires more out of its competitors than any other competition. Each competitor argues for approximately 25 minutes and both sides must prepare a memorial, or brief, that is more than 40 pages combined,” he said. “Our team faithfully showed up for practice after practice at 7 a.m. I would have a hard time finding any team on Moot Court that worked harder than our four competitors this year. They demonstrated a tremendous amount of skill at the competition.”
Cardozo BMI Entertainment and Communications Law Moot Court Competition
Audra Lynn (J.D. ’19) and Samuel Mullman (J.D. ’18) advanced to the semifinals of the Cardozo BMI Entertainment and Communications Law Moot Court Competition at the Benjamin Cardozo Law School in New York City. They won best brief overall with Lynn being named best oralist runner-up.
The team’s coach Will Story (J.D./M.B.A. ’18) helped Lynn and Mullman prepare. They only had six weeks, from the time the problem was released, to research, write their brief and practice oral arguments.
“We put in a lot of hard work, and Sam and I are proud to have advanced to the semifinals, competing among the top eight teams in the national competition,” Lynn said. “It was an amazing honor to be awarded second place oralist, especially considering all the other hard-working, prestigious participants.”
Duberstein Bankruptcy Competition
Georgia State Law Moot Court president Chris Guthrie (J.D. ’17), Ethan Smith (J.D. ’18) and Peter Skaliy (J.D. ’17) advanced to the quarterfinals at the Duberstein Bankruptcy Competition. They finished in the top eight, out of 48 teams competing in New York at the St. John’s University School of Law.
“Although we were disappointed to not advance further, finishing in the top eight at such a big competition very rewarding,” Guthrie said. “It felt great to know that all of our hard work on the brief and early morning oral argument practices paid off.”
Visiting assistant professor of law Summer Chandler helped the team prepare.
“Professor Chandler attended many practices and helped recruit attorneys to judge our practice rounds,” Guthrie said. “She traveled with us to our practice round in Miami and was available when we had questions while in NYC. We would not have gone so far in the competition without her help.”
Guthrie has enjoyed is experience overall with Moot Court and feels it’s a great opportunity for fellow students to enhance their lawyering skills.
“I joined Moot Court because I enjoy the courtroom setting and arguing legal issues,” he said. “Moot Court provides students with the foremost opportunity to develop their writing and oral advocacy skills, which will not only make them better lawyers, but employers like it as well.”