On Friday, Nov. 28, and Saturday, Nov. 29, several of SVSU’s Moot Court team members competed in Regionals in Arbury Hall.
Moot Court Advisor Julie Keil and Accounting, Law and Finance Department Chair Amy Hen- drickson served as some of the Moot Court coaches this year.
Moot Court runs as a three-credit class and focuses on giving students practice in law arguments. Many Moot Court members, such as Justin Weller, a political science sophomore, and Lindsey Mead, an English junior, are interested in studying law.
Weller and Mead, who were partners during Moot Court, qualified for Nationals after placing in Regionals. Weller finished the weekend in eighth place, and Lindsay received fourth place.
This was Weller’s rst year in Moot Court, and he enjoyed having the opportunity to meet new people and learn more about the law profession.
“It’s very challenging. You have to put your time into it to reap the benefits of it,” Weller said. “In Moot Court, you are first given a case (to argue). You get to read all the cases. … You use that information to argue your case in the Moot Court setting.”
Mead and Weller argued their first three rounds on Friday.
“After [we argued our cases], we were waiting for the results,” he said. “We did hear that I had won an orator award, which means we spoke well.”
Given that it was his first year in Moot Court, Weller believed he performed well.
“I could qualify for an orator award and come in fourth because of my friends and my coaches,” he said. “I was able to perfect my forensic abilities and get to where I needed to be.”
According to Mead, only about half the teams and individuals make it to the second day of Regionals. Four SVSU teams made it to the second day this year.
“The top eight teams from the SVSU Regional go on to compete for Nationals,” she said. “Justin and I got far in the competition and finished as the fourth-place team out of 46 teams. We were semifinalists and earned ourselves a spot at the National Competition to compete for a National title.”
To keep their national standing with the American Moot Court Association, SVSU had to have at least one team qualify for Nationals, Mead said.
“This Regional competition is important in order to qualify teams for Nationals, so Justin and I look forward to fighting for SVSU’s ranking amongst the other schools that have Moot Court programs at the National competition,” she said.
Weller and Mead will head to Nationals in January 2019 in Orlando, and they will know their final rankings before the winter semester starts.
