Law School Moot Court Teams Continue String of Impressive Showings

Recent strong showings by the Law School’s moot court competition teams continue a highly successful season for the program.

In the McGee National Civil Rights competition held last month, the Respondent team (2L Isabel McClure, 3L Zachary Hofeld, and 3L Tariq Miller) advanced through the quarterfinals and semifinals to the final round, where they ultimately lost a split decision. McClure was named best overall oralist. The team also placed 8th in the brief competition. The Petitioner team (3Ls Fatjon Kaja and Matt McCord) had a perfect 3-0 record in the preliminary rounds.

Also last month, the Duberstein Bankruptcy moot court competition team (3Ls Charles Shafer, Nora Steinhagen, and Kevin Cunningham) placed second in the Chicago regional, narrowly in the final round before a panel of bankruptcy judges. The team also performed well earlier this month in the national competition, in New York City.

Just last week, 3Ls J.J. Pristanski and Matt Mirabella won the MIPLA Cup, sponsored every year by the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association. They will compete in a national I.P. moot court competition in Boston later this month.

3Ls J.J. Pristanski and Matt Mirabella
These high-level placements come on the heels of the National Moot Court team sweep of the regional competition in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last fall. (See “Law School National Moot Court Team Wins Regional Title.”) At the national level in New York City in January, the Respondent team placed 8th in the brief competition and made it to the round of 16.

Minnesota Law moot court teams have done well in several other recent competitions:

  • The Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition team (3L Adam Ratchenski, 3L Maya Digre, and 2L Sam Duggan) last month placed 6th out of 54 teams in the brief-writing portion of the competition, in White Plains, New York.
  • The ABA moot court teams (3Ls Christopher Conway, Rob Wild, Kalyssa Maile, Christie Geter, and Breanna Helland) earlier this month narrowly missed advancing through the prelims, with Conway winning 4th best oralist.
  • The NYU National Immigration Law Competition moot court team (2Ls Jiaqi Li and Kimberly Medina) advanced beyond the preliminary rounds last month to the quarterfinal round. Their brief scored in the top third of the competition.
McGee Moot Court Team
3L Matt McCord, 3L Zachary Hofeld, 3L Tariq Miller, 2L Isabel McClure, Prof. Chris Soper, and 3L Fatjon Kaja at the McGee National Civil Rights competition.