3/03/06--BC Law’s student advocacy teams enjoyed tremendous success at numerous competitions this month, including the Frederick Douglas Moot Court Competition, the American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition, and the National Administrative-Environmental Law Moot Court. At the same time, finishing off a busy month that began with hosting the European Union Law Moot Court competition, BC Law hosted Regional Competitions in Client Counseling and the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

BC Law’s Mock Trial teams kicked off several weeks of competition at the Northeast Regional Rounds at Franklin Pierce in Concord, New Hampshire. Jeff Stuffings, JP Traue, and Barbara Swartz went to the semifinals and were knocked out by the team that won the competition. Scott Lauer, Dana Robinson and Tracy Hresko just missed the semifinals. "I am exceptionally proud of the students involved,” wrote their coach, Cathy Bennett. “They handled themselves with true professionalism and class. They are a wonderful, talented, hardworking group of young lawyers who will go on to do great things. It was a pleasure to coach them and watch them find their voices and places in the courtroom."

Sean T. Phelan and Steven Van Dyke won the regional of the American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition and advanced to the national competition in Florida next month. They emerged victorious from a field of eleven teams who came to the BC campus from throughout New England and from as far away as the University of Wyoming. BC Law’s second entry, the team of Nicole L. Picard and Matthew B. Harvey performed superbly as well, but were edged out in the qualifying round. This is the fourth time in five years that BC Law will be represented at the national competition.

BC Law's Frederick Douglass Moot Court team of Tiffany Buckley and James McGuinness competed last weekend in Albany, New York, and advanced to the national championship to be held next month in Washington, D.C. Coach Sharon Beckman reported that Buckley and McGuinness emerged from the three preliminary rounds of competition ranked first among the forty-five teams competing. They ultimately finished third in the Northeast Region, behind only Columbia, whose teams finished first and second.

“Congratulations to Tiffany and Jim, and many thanks to the faculty and alumni who have helped them achieve this honor for BC,” said Beckman. “I’m very proud of this team.”

In the J. Braxton Craven Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition in North Carolina this past weekend, BC's team of William Dunn, Bryan Bertram, and Lauren Fascett were runners-up in the final round. This is the third time in the last four years that the team, coached by Tom Barnico, has made it to the final round of this national competition. James Fagan was the manager.

The National Administrative-Environmental Law Moot Court team of Heather Castillo, Jim Downing, and Chris Morgan competed last week in a field of 72 schools at the national competition at Pace University in White Plains, New York. Coach Zygmunt Plater reported that they advanced to the Quarterfinals and took Best Oralist awards along the way.

In the Saul Lefkowitz competition in New York City, Gauri Davan, Martha Wilson-Byrnes, Daniel Malone, and Leila Amineddoleh competed on a hypothetical involving the law of Trademarks and Unfair Competition. They did well but did not advance to the nationals.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Alison Hickey and Christopher Gosselin competed in the 16th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition held at Vanderbilt University last week. Hickey won the Best Oralist Award for her presentation (see previous story).

On the international law front, BC Law was active in three programs. NYU hosted the inaugural Immigration Law Moot Court last weekend, and intends to make the event an annual tradition. Thanks in large part to coaches Dan Kanstroom and Maureen O'Sullivan, BC Law was one of the schools selected to compete in the inaugural competition. The team of Tara Slepkow, Alex Parcan, and Cecilia Chen advanced to the semifinals.

This past weekend, Boston College Law School hosted the Northeast Regional Rounds of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which is one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious moot court competitions. Schools from 90 different countries competed in the various regional rounds. Thirteen teams competed all day Saturday on the Newton campus. On Sunday, at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston, the Fletcher School defeated Syracuse in the final round and will advance to the National Championship Round in March in Washington, DC.

As dictated by the competition’s regulations, BC Law’s Jessup team of Arlan Fuller, Meagan Garland, James Bitanga, Kristen Johnson, and Jihyun Cathie Tak was forced to travel elsewhere. They headed off on the weekend of the 18th to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and performed very well, beating teams from Duke and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. they lost to eventual champions Alabama, and narrowly missed advancing to the semifinals. Bitanga and Garland ranked, respectively, 8th and 9th Best Oralists in the competition.

"The Jessup competition in the largest and one of the most prestigious moot court competitions in the world," said Professor Carey, Director of Advocacy Programs. "This year's team mastered a very complicated international law problem and their knowledge of international law was praised even by their opponents. We're very proud of them."

Over the weekend of February 9-12, BC Law hosted the only American Regional Round of the European Union Law Moot Court, the second largest moot court competition in the world. Twelve teams of students came to Boston from law schools in Ireland, Italy, France, England, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. A distinguished panel of judges and practitioners with a wealth of international experience was assembled from Europe and the United States to judge the competition. Approximately eighty students, scholars, practitioners of European Union Law, and European Union officials participated in the arguments. The Boston Bar Association hosted a welcoming reception and oral arguments took place all day Friday at the Law school, followed by a reception at Barat House. Semifinal arguments were held Saturday morning at the John Adams Courthouse, and the Final Argument was held in the afternoon in the Supreme Judicial Court courtroom. The weekend culminated with a farewell dinner sponsored by the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Finally, the month began with the EU team of Patrick Halasz, Victoria Bembenista, and Megan Smiley, with their coach Joe Mueller, traveling to Dublin to compete in one of the three European regional rounds of this International competition. Of the three American teams competing in the Dublin regional (BC, Columbia, and Georgetown), one American qualified for the Dublin semifinals: Patrick Halasz, a semi-finalist in the Advocate General competition.