. Forum

[Myself]

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[I.P. Daly]

It's my understanding that the schools that frequently make it to the finals in the Federal Bar Association Moot Court Competition are pretty good.

http://www.fedbar.org/Divisions/Younger ... Court.aspx

[stillwater]

It's my understanding that the schools that frequently make it to the finals in the Federal Bar Association Moot Court Competition are pretty good.

http://www.fedbar.org/Divisions/Younger ... Court.aspx

these schools are TTT and TTTTs.

[JXander]

It depends on what type of Moot Court you intend to go into. There are dozens of "leagues" (though they aren't really "leagues," just tournaments that are frequently hosted by one organization/association under one legal umbrella).

Hastings is very good, but check out this page and do some research into the actual type of Moot Court competition you would want to enter.

[beardown_tho]

Pepperdine deserves a mention.

[09042014]

It's my understanding that the schools that frequently make it to the finals in the Federal Bar Association Moot Court Competition are pretty good.

http://www.fedbar.org/Divisions/Younger ... Court.aspx

these schools are TTT and TTTTs.

Northwestern's dean told our moot court leaders he didn't care because only crappy schools care about. Lol.

[Tom Joad]

It's my understanding that the schools that frequently make it to the finals in the Federal Bar Association Moot Court Competition are pretty good.

http://www.fedbar.org/Divisions/Younger ... Court.aspx

--ImageRemoved--
If I do moot court I am getting a 3 piece like that guy.

[NotMyRealName09]

Cooley has a national championship client counseling team.

[Gamecubesupreme]

The thing with moot court is that at the upper ranked schools, winning their school's internal moot court is much more prestigious than winning an interscholastic moot.

In other words, winning Yale or Harvard's internal moot court competition is seen to be much more impressive than winning a national moot court competition. Thus, students in those schools spend their time preparing for their school's moot and generally don't bother entering any other moot court competition, even national and prestigious ones.

[jml8756]

Please do not choose a law school based on moot court.

[mr.hands]

Please do not choose a law school based on moot court.

Yeah this is a terrible idea.

[haus]

Being concerned with the quality of a schools moot court team seems to be a half notch above being conceded about the quality of their pickup basketball games.

[09042014]

Being concerned with the quality of a schools moot court team seems to be a half notch above being conceded about the quality of their pickup basketball games.

Back when T14 was a 180K vacation before you got assigned to a big law firm, UVA's softball was a huge draw.

[Revamped]

I am on a trial competition team for my law school, and I can attest that rank or prestige does not necessarily translate into good moot court teams. I agree with the other poster than an internal competition at HYS or the like is far more impressive, and it is also likely one of the reasons that top law schools (see what i did there?) don't necessarily have the best moot court teams.

Choosing your school based on a moot court team is a bad idea. You will have exposure to moot court at almost every law school in the country. Don't use that as a decision factor.

Plus, a team is only as good as its members. If you pick a school with a good team, those kids are going to be long gone by the time you get there.

In short, use other factors to make your decision. This shouldn't be one.

[ilovesf]

As someone who does moot court, it is stupid. I don't see why you would ever care about a school's moot court reputation.

[JXander]

I am on a trial competition team for my law school, and I can attest that rank or prestige does not necessarily translate into good moot court teams. I agree with the other poster than an internal competition at HYS or the like is far more impressive, and it is also likely one of the reasons that top law schools (see what i did there?) don't necessarily have the best moot court teams.

Choosing your school based on a moot court team is a bad idea. You will have exposure to moot court at almost every law school in the country. Don't use that as a decision factor.

Plus, a team is only as good as its members. If you pick a school with a good team, those kids are going to be long gone by the time you get there.

In short, use other factors to make your decision. This shouldn't be one.

+1

Law school is all about doing well so you can get a good career. Moot Court is not going to get you a good career and it doesn't necessarily prepare you for appellate law (a field in which you will not enter just out of law school).

[I.P. Daly]

I attended an intramural moot court competition at my school. Man, those kids did work. It was impressive. My idea of a good time is not writing a 25 page brief and than arguing about some obscure area of law before a panel of three judges, but the moot court people seemed to enjoy it.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Neither mock trial or moot court matters, but at least with mock trial you can learn how to do something you might use in the future.

Best bet would probably be to do one moot court competition to get a decent writing sample (other than your 1L memo, which everyone will use for 2L OCI), and one mock trial tournament to get a sense of the courtroom. Then focus on grades and networking.

[ilovesf]

I actually really like moot court (at least the arguing part, not so much the brief writing part), and I think under certain circumstances, it can be good for networking. My friend got some attorney's cards over the weekend at a competition and is trying to set up some interviews with them since she did well. Not only that, but if your school has a strong program, then alumni of the program come back and judge all the time. I actually think it can be a good way to network and it feels a lot easier than some of the other forced stuff.
I still think choosing a school based on moot court would be stupid though.

[LSATNightmares]

Moot court has some real advantages. At my T30 school, we have a very competitive intramural competition. If you make to the semi-finals, state supreme court judges are your judges. If you get to the finals, circuit and district court judges are your judges. I have heard of students getting clerkships at the federal circuit level from that.

[romothesavior]

Please do not choose a law school based on moot court.

+1

I've done a lot of moot court, both in college and in law school, and I can't stress this enough. It should not enter into the equation. Its a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience, but doing moot court (even if you win competitions) won't get you very far when you're looking for a job. And to the extent it does help, I don't think employers really care much about prestigious national competitions. I have some individual moot court awards on my resume and won one of our schools competitions, and a few employers commented on it when I was interviewing. But I don't think they were all that impressed by it, and I don't think they'd have cared more if it was a national vs. in-school thing. I think they just liked it because it showed a passion for litigation/advocacy and that I'm not an aspie in my writing/oral advocacy.

So yeah, don't let be a factor in choosing between schools. Do it because its fun and challenging, and then kick ass in whatever competition you do.

[TLSwag]

Moot court has some real advantages. At my T30 school, we have a very competitive intramural competition. If you make to the semi-finals, state supreme court judges are your judges. If you get to the finals, circuit and district court judges are your judges. I have heard of students getting clerkships at the federal circuit level from that.

all 1.5% of them? OP, do not make a decision to attend law school based on moot court "prestige," please

[deadpanic]

Yeah, most of the moot court teams that win are TTTs because they place a lot of emphasis on this.

You should go to the best law school possible at the cheapest price in the region you want to work in.

[JenDarby]

I really enjoy Moot Court. As far as drinking events go, they dominate the school-run organizations I am a part of. I have enjoyed some high quality free meals and booze. Fordham's team is solid.

Oh, and we also win a lot of shit. I don't think one team this year didn't advance to a semi finals or finals round and there were many best all around competitors, best brief, etc. awards tossed our way. I wouldn't say the school promotes it insanely, but who doesn't like winning?

That being said, Moot Court serves its resume filling purpose whether the team is good or not. It's a plus if you enjoy the people, but if you don't you can get in an out and just do the work.

[Myself]

It's my understanding that the schools that frequently make it to the finals in the Federal Bar Association Moot Court Competition are pretty good.

http://www.fedbar.org/Divisions/Younger ... Court.aspx

these schools are TTT and TTTTs.

Northwestern's dean told our moot court leaders he didn't care because only crappy schools care about. Lol.

This is actually kinda true...