The University of Arkansas School of Law sponsors two intramural moot court competitions for second year students, which cumulatively lead to the selection of the law school's interscholastic appellate moot court competition teams.
Fall Moot Court Intramural Competition
The fall moot court intra school program is open to all second year students. In the 1998-99 academic year, 62 students competed in the fall competition, for which they did not receive academic credit. Each participant participated as a solo oralist, and argued three rounds of argument before panels of three judges. Faculty, alumni, and members of the board of advocates comprised the panels of judges for each of the 93 rounds that were scheduled. The top 32 oralists in the fall competition were honored when they were offered an invitation to argue in the Ben J. Altheimer Spring Moot Court Competition.
Faculty participation in the fall moot court competition included faculty advising by the Coordinator of Moot Court Programs, Kathryn Sampson, and judging by several members of the faculty. Student chairs Hastings Hanshaw and Collin Kennedy (Class of 1999) involved several other faculty volunteers to judge several rounds of oral argument.
Ben J. Altheimer Spring Moot Court Competition
The spring moot court competition is an invitational competition open to those 32 second year students who performed the best in their oral advocacy in the fall competition. Each participant paired with a partner to write a brief and then argued four preliminary rounds before the elimination rounds began. The elimination rounds included quarter final, semi-final and final rounds. Again, faculty, alumni, and members of the board of advocates comprised the panels of judges for each of the 64 preliminary rounds that were scheduled, as well as four quarter final rounds and two semi-final rounds for a total of 70 rounds of judging. The final round judges were comprised of members of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Faculty participation in the spring moot court competition included faculty advice from the Ben J. Altheimer Professor of Advocacy John Watkins; the Faculty Coordinator of Moot Court Programs, Kathryn Sampson; and judging by several members of the faculty. Student chairs Erin Royston and Steve Maddex (Class of 1999) solicited help from several other faculty volunteers..
Interscholastic Appellate Moot Court Competitions
All 32 students who advance to the Ben J. Altheimer Spring Moot Court Competition are eligible to apply for a position on one of Arkansas's traveling moot court court teams. Twelve students were selected, by members of the 1997-98 interscholastic moot court teams and their faculty coaches, to form the interscholastic appellate moot court competition teams for 1998-99.
Three faculty coaches were appointed by the Dean to coach five interscholastic appellate moot court competition teams during the academic year 1998-99: Kathryn Sampson, Frank Bozzo, and Kim Coats. Each faculty member organized a minimum of 9 practices involving other members of the faculty. Dean Strickman, John Watkins, Ray Guzman, Carol Goforth, Terry Jean Seligmann, Bob Laurence, Rob Leflar, Mary Beth Matthews, Richard F. Richards, Howard Brill, Cynthia Nance, Tim Tarvin, Kathryn Sampson, Frank Bozzo, and Kim Coats have all volunteered their time to practice one or more of the interscholastic teams.
This faculty support in 1998-99 netted one second place trophy, one fourth place trophy, an advance to the semi-finals, and an advance to the quarter finals in national appellate moot court competitions. Professor Sampson coached three persons in the Regional Rounds of the National Moot Court Competition sponsored by the Bar of the City of New York (semi-finals) and two persons in the Ninth Annual Vanderbilt First Amendment Moot Court Competition (2d place). Professor Bozzo coached two persons in the National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition and three persons in the Craven Cup Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition (quarter finalists). Professor Coats coached two persons in the National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition (finals, 4th place trophy).
Summary of the law school's efforts to encourage faculty participation in moot court programs.
The law school's curricular decisions have encouraged both student and faculty participation in moot court. The second semester legal research and writing focus on the appellate advocacy format for persuasive writing encourages student participation in the fall moot court competition. Members of the legal writing faculty form the nucleus of faculty coaches who work with the interscholastic moot court teams and who work as faculty advisors on the intra-school competitions. Those legal writing faculty also actively recruit senior faculty to help judge practice rounds for the interscholastic teams. The law school has further encouraged faculty participation by allowing faculty coaches to accompany the interscholastic teams to the off-site tournaments. This faculty presence at the competitions enhances the faculty coaches' ability to more effectively guide competition teams in forthcoming years. The success of the interscholastic teams has a positive influence on the senior faculty's desire to volunteer their time and energy to help practice the interscholastic teams and to help judge rounds in the intra-school competitions. The interrelationship between the law school intra-school and interscholastic programs and the involvement of many members of the faculty, has created an interscholastic program that has met with growing success in the past six to seven years.