May 3, 2002

School of Law Moot Court team among the best in the world, again

by Khalil Jetha, A'03, Intern, Offices of Public Affairs and Publications

To rank highly among others in the country is a special honor. However, to rank highly among others in the world is truly a spectacle. Loyola's Moot Court finished in the top eight at the eighth annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna, Austria, in March. The 26 U.S. law schools competing at the beginning of the competition included Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, the University of Texas, Tulane, and Loyola. In last year's competition, Loyola and Harvard were the only American schools to finish in the final eight. This year, the only American school to make the final round was Loyola.

How did Loyola prepare for such formidable opponents as Harvard and Columbia? One of the four team-members, Marc Roark, attributes much of their success to their coach, Professor Henry Gabriel. "We had a couple of people who worked extensively with us," Roark recalls. Professor Patrick Hugg also worked with the team from October until the end of March. The team worked extremely hard for the competition, practicing debates three to four times per week for more than a month.

"The topic of the competition was international sale of goods, and dealing with jurisdictional issues and disputes over contract [details]," says Holly Roberts, another team member. Preparation included writing two briefs: one from a claimant side and one from a respondent side. "We spent quite a bit of time flushing out the issues, not in formal debate but in making sure we understood the issues and the context of the problem," Roark says. "Once we understood the issues, everything flowed." The team was given the problem in October, and did extensive research from that point until March, producing a series of legal briefs from both a claimant and respondent point of view. Thomas Richards and Susan Rogge also were members of the winning team.

The criterion for placement in the Austrian competition is based on four rounds of debate, two from a claimant standpoint and two from a respondent perspective. Four judges score each round on a scale of 300 being a perfect score. After the first elimination, only 16 remain. From there, each team competes in one-on-one competition against another finalist. "We were never up against an American school; we competed against several German schools and a Swiss school," Roark remembers. "The team we lost to was the team that won the entire competition, so we felt good about that."

According to Roark, no single victory took precedence as a pivotal point. "I would say that they were all equally important in getting where we needed to get to because they all counted for something in the total," Roark states. "Each member probably was equally significant in our overall status as a team; each time we [competed] made us gel as a team in coherence."

ATLA team is winners

The American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) Louisiana State Team also brought honors and recognition to the School of Law. The team came in first place in the Louisiana State Trial competition, finishing ahead of Tulane School of Law and Southern University in Baton Rouge Law Center.

The team argued a hypothetical case of civil negligence in the construction of a playground. Team members are (pictured below, from left): Brigid Collins, Tanzanika Ruffin (coach), Maurice Ruffin, and Michelle Miller. Not pictured Alice Hall.