STL students had the opportunity to test their advocacy skills in competition this month through the 2018 STL Intramural Moot Court Competition. STL students were invited to join the competition by submitting an argument on behalf of one side in a fictional U.S. Supreme Court case. Participants then argued in preliminary and semi-final rounds to determine which four participants could argue in the final round on Saturday, August 25.
This was the first Intramural Moot Court Competition organized by STL’s Moot Court Board, a group of upper-level students who previously represented STL in moot court competitions.
Four STL 2Ls, Zhang Fengming, Lin Yifu, Cui Luting, and Yin Wenjie advanced to the final rounds. Each finalist presented their arguments before a panel of four judges: Dean Philip McConnaughay, Susan Ning, partner at King Wood & Mallesons, Duncan Watson, partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Gu Dai, an STL alumna, partner at Yi & Partners. The judges were impressed by all four finalists. Cui Luting received the prize for Best Oralist from the judges. Lin Yifu received the prize for Best Written Submission from the Moot Court Board.
Students who participated in the Moot Court will now have the opportunity to apply to join STL’s Moot Court Program, which sends teams to several national and international moot court competitions every year, including the Willem C. Vis International Arbitration Competition, the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot, the Stetson International Environmental Law Moot, the Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot, among others.
