National Moot Court Competition Teams Make Strong Showing at Region Tournament

The Law School’s National Moot Court Competition teams achieved outstanding results at the Region 14 tournament at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, this past weekend, sweeping the best brief awards and sending one team on to the national finals.

Members of the Respondent team (3Ls Andrew Leiendecker, Sean Rinehart, and Samuel Thompson) advanced to the regional championship round, where they lost a close argument to a team from host Drake. The Law School team wrote the best Respondent brief in the competition, and team member Leiendecker finished in the region’s top ten oralists. Because of its second-place finish, the team will advance to the national final rounds, which will be held Jan. 30-Feb. 2 in New York.

The Petitioner team members (3Ls Rudolph Dambeck, Brittany Gefroh, and Andrew Knaak) were undefeated until the semifinals, where they lost to their classmates on the Law School Respondent team. The Petitioner team wrote the best Petitioner brief in the competition.

The teams were coached by adjunct faculty co-advisers Cicely Miltich (’11) and Kyle Hardwick (’13). Other local attorneys and Clinical Professor Brad Clary (’75) judged practice rounds and provided additional valuable feedback. In the last 35 years, out of the 70 Law School teams in the competition, 50 have qualified for the region quarterfinals, 33 have qualified for the region final four, and 20 have gone on to the national finals. This year’s Respondent team will be the 11th team in the last 15 years to go to New York.