Moot Court 

Through its Moot Court Program, USF strives to provide students a realistic sense of the rewards and challenges of practice after law school. It incorporates a wide-range of activities giving students opportunities to practice their oral advocacy and brief writing skills. The program also aims to give students, alumni and practitioners a forum for collaboration. 

Students participating in the Moot Court Program oversee the intramural Advocate of the Year Competition in the fall and assist in preparing and administering an oral advocacy exercise for the first-year Legal Research, Writing and Analysis Program in the spring.  Other students participate on Moot Court Advocacy Teams competing against teams from other law schools both locally and nationally in numerous appellate, trial and negotiation competitions. 

During the spring, the Moot Court Board oversees the work of the Moot Court Case Counsel as they assist the Legal Writing Professors in preparing problems for and administering an oral advocacy exercise which is part of the Legal Research, Writing and Analysis Program. Case Counsel guide first-year students through the exercise in which they are assigned to represent either the Appellant or Respondent in an appellate case. The students are extensively coached on oral advocacy techniques and are given an opportunity to videotape and review their arguments. During the final oral argument weekend, students present their argument against an opponent before a panel of USF alumni serving as judges. 

The Moot Court Board

Co-Executive Directors
Kasey Hawkins - kcwilson4@usfca.edu
Lany W. Or - lwor@usfca.edu 

Development Directors
Katie Clifford - klclifford@usfca.edu
Caitlin Graham - ctgraham@usfca.edu

Advanced Competition Coordinator
Maria-Theresa Peralta - mperalta@usfca.edu

Managing Director
Melissa Demetral - mdemetral@gmail.com 

Advocacy Director
Derik Hilliard - djhilliard@usfca.edu

Directors at Large
Kathryn Fraser – kmfraser@usfca.edu
Talia MacMath - tnmacmath@usfca.edu