April 7, 2017

Moot Court Team Reaches Semifinals and Wins Best Brief at Competition in New York

At the 32nd Annual Dean Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition held at Brooklyn Law School in New York during the first weekend of April, Southwestern competed very well, finishing in the top 4 out of 32 participating teams. In addition to being semi-finalists, Southwestern’s team of Roy Manukyan, Nicole Meyers and Kasun Wijeyewickrema won Best Brief of the competition.

In the first preliminary round, Southwestern defeated Villanova. In the second round: Southwestern beat Campbell. In the Octafinals, the team prevailed over Michigan State. In the quarterfinals, Southwestern triumphed over Pepperdine, before losing to Ohio State in the semis. Professor Norm Garland coached the team.

Meyers, who wrote the team’s winning brief, noted: “I think our team had an edge for several reasons. First, I was very passionate about evidence law, and I specifically chose to write for the Prince competition. Second, as a team, we were all extremely dedicated to giving this competition our all, and we were able to speak candidly about our thoughts−good and bad, regarding whatever issues or obstacles we were facing at the time.  We were able to be blunt with each other, which allowed us to tackle conflicts head on and deal with them swiftly. Most importantly, we directed our energy into making our work product as flawless as possible, and in the end, I believe this work ethic allowed us to produce a winning brief and develop top notch oral arguments.”

The Dean Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition is the only one of its kind dedicated to the appellate advocacy of criminal evidence issues. The problem the team argued was comprised of three issues: 1) the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule; 2) the state of mind hearsay exception; and 3) the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment.