School of Law hosts biannual competition

Preparations for the Spring Moot Court Competition oral
arguments, which will take place on Feb. 19, are currently underway
at the UCLA School of Law.

Forty-seven students are participating in the competition, which
simulates an appellate court.

The competition takes place two times a year, and is open to
second- and third-year law students.

The majority of the participants are students who have placed in
the top 40 percent of the Fall competition and are eligible to
advance to the Roscoe Pound Tournament, the final internal
competition of the Moot Court Honors Program, which will take place
in March.

The rest of the participants are students who have not
participated in the program before or who participated in the Fall
competition but did not place in the top 40 percent.

“It’s an unparalleled experience. It’s not
easy, but there’s no comparison to being up there and arguing
for yourself,” said Amanda Gabai, a second-year law
student.

Because the moot court program is not mandatory, students
undertake it in addition to their regular workload.

Participants spend two weeks researching and writing an
appellate brief based on problems provided by a board in charge of
the competitions.

“In the spring, it’s a little bit easier because the
tournament is earlier in the quarter,” said James Czaja, a
second-year law student who also participated in the fall
competition.

The competition culminates with the participants orally
defending their brief in front of a panel of judges.

Sera Hwang, a second-year student, said she decided to
participate in the program because it teaches her to work under
pressure and is good preparation for litigation.

During the oral arguments, it is important to be well organized,
decide how much time to spend on each argument, focus on the
strongest arguments and to direct the arguments on where you want
the judges to focus, Hwang said.

“I’m only doing this twice in my law school career,
so it’s definitely worth (the work),” she said.

The problems that participants work with are based on
conflicting rulings made by courts around the country.

For the spring competition, one of the problems presented is
based on the conflict between state and federal law over the
legalization of medicinal marijuana.

The second issue deals with whether a person who has been
convicted of a felony by a foreign court can possess firearms.

The questions the judges ask are not straightforward and it is
important to think about the issues carefully, Hwang said.

For the first time, the law school will also be holding a
competition for first-year law students.

The competition, scheduled to take place in April, will be a
scaled-down version of the regular moot court competition,
involving oral arguments but no briefs.