Preparing for Practice
Each year, USF students compete in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition sponsored by the International Trademark Association. Two USF School of Law students took first place in the 2016-2017 national competition.
USF's Moot Court Program helps you build the advocacy and leadership skills required of today's legal professionals.
The program incorporates a range of opportunities to practice hands-on oral advocacy and brief writing skills, while also giving students, alumni, and practitioners a forum for networking and collaboration.
Students first participate in Moot Court through their Legal Research, Writing, and Analysis class where they research and write a complex legal brief. After being coached by our legal writing faculty and a Moot Court student case counsel, the students end the semester with an oral argument in front of visiting judges.
Students who excel in the program join the advanced moot court programs as student leaders in their second year. Some become case counsel and work directly with a member of the legal writing faculty to both develop the problem that the first year students will work on and assist in the classroom. Other students join one of our prestigious and very successful advocacy teams. We send teams to competitions, including the National Moot Court Competition and the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
The 2016-2017 academic year was a successful year for the USF Moot Court competition teams. One of our Lefkowitz competition teams won the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition Nationals. Along the way, they also placed first in Oral Arguments in Nationals and placed first overall in the Lefkowitz Western Regionals. Further, our Thomas Tang competition team advanced to the National rounds in San Diego where they finished in the top eight. Our Tang team also placed first in Oral Advocacy for the National rounds. Our National Criminal Procedure Tournament team earned second place in the Best Respondent Brief category. They also finished as quarterfinalist in the competition. Finally, our Robert Wagner Moot Court competition team placed first in Oral Arguments for the petitioner side. We are proud of our teams’ accomplishments this past academic year.
USF’s Intellectual Property Moot Court Team Wins Lefkowitz National Moot Competition
USF’s Tax Moot Court Team Wins ABA National Competition
This board oversees the entire program including USF’s internal advocacy competition, the Advocate of the Year Competition, open to all USF students.
Executive Director
Sarah Malik
Competition Team Director
Rachel Christenson
Advocacy of the Year Competition Director
Tamara Moresi
First Year Moot Court Director
Edgar Zaragosa Guzman
Development DirectorsAlice Chuang
Jennifer Estevez
Jordan Hameen
Spencer Ladd
Michael Tan
Gabriella Trapani
Professor of Legal Writing
Monalisa Vu
mvu@usfca.edu
415-422-2608
The Moot Court Program has given me far more than the skills to argue and the confidence to advocate. The briefs I have written with increasing proficiency, the arguments I have won and lost, and the lasting meaningful connections I have made with my peers—these only scratch the surface of the reasons why Moot Court has been one of my richest law school experiences and one I wholeheartedly recommend.
This site uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the use of cookies. Our Privacy Policy is located at https://www.usfca.edu/privacy
Continue