Moot Court or Trial Team? Forum

[el William]

I am a 1L looking for some advice on choosing between going out for Moot Court or Trial Team. For some reason I am under the impression that Moot Court carries a bit more prestige on the resume, however I participated in a 1L only mock trial competition and really enjoyed the experience. I would appreciate advice on the following questions:

1) How important are extracurricular activities like Moot Court or Trial Team?
2) Am I correct in my perception that Moot Court carries more prestige on your resume?
3) Will having one of these activities on my resume help with the job search during 2L OCI?
4) Will they help at all in finding a job after graduation?

[lawyerdown27]

IMHO (at a secondary market T2):

1) Both are mildly important, but neither is nearly as important as Law Review (i.e. one or the other is not an acceptable substitute for Law Review - you can do more than 1 co-curricular at my school)
2) Slightly (that seems like a common thought but honestly who knows)
3) See 1)
4) Maybe if doing one of those activities will allow you to meet and network with some practicing attorneys who are vets of that program, and they are certainly better than not having any extracurricular on your resume

[LeDique]

Just do whichever one appeals to you more. I would hate mock trial, but I really like moot court.

[A. Nony Mouse]

To the extent moot court has more prestige, I think in part it's because 1) it's older/more established (I'm pretty sure moot court competitions are older than mock trial), 2) it involves formal writing, and 3) appellate stuff tends to be snootier (e.g. COA clerkships are more prestigious than district court). My impression is that DAs/PDs quite like to see mock trial and don't much care about moot court, and firms don't much care about either (on firm attorney webpages, they love to list Order of the Coif, LR and board positions, and publications, but I don't think I've seen a lot of moot court listings, except perhaps if you've won something at a national competition). Like lawyerdown27 said, neither substitutes for LR, but they're both worth doing, and yeah, picking the one you like better makes sense. (They're enough work that doing one without enjoying it would be fairly miserable.)

You could (probably) also wait to decide until you've done your 1L appellate brief, and see how you like that process. (Assuming you do appellate during 1L.)

[sportsaholic763]

Interested in this for sure.