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Corporate Counsel Conference

MOOT COURT

MOOT COURT

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21st Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition

The Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition brings together over 30 teams of law students from the nation’s top law schools to argue a case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. This year the competition will take place at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV during the Corporate Counsel Conference.

The HNBA has set aside a block of rooms for students at a reduced rate. Please contact Michelle C. Avelino, HNBA Program & Administrative Coordinator, at support@hnba.com for instructions on how to reserve a room at the student rate.

** Moot Court Orientation will begin at 8:00 a.m. on March 16, 2016 in Octavius 1-2 room. Breakfast will be served during orientation.

Participants must be HNBA members and HNBA-Law Student Division members at the time they register for the Competition.

MOOT COURT REGISTRATION

Registration is now closed.

CLARIFICATIONS

12/2/15 A clarification has been requested about the eligibility of fellow law students to serve as coaches.
A team’s coach must be a practitioner or a law school professor or, in an unusual circumstance, a student who has gone through the HNBA Moot Court Competition experience for two years in a row.  In the event a team proposes such a student, that student must provide documentation to the Director as to that prior participation prior to being able to begin serving as the team’s coach.

01/11/16 A clarification has been requested about changing the order of the questions when writing the brief.
The questions do not have to be answered in any particular order when writing the brief.

01/11/16 A clarification has been requested about the format for submitting the brief, and the exact deadline.
The briefs are to be submitted electronically to support@hnba.com by 11:59 PM EST on January 15, 2016. Each team must submit the original version (with signatures and other identifying information on the cover) and one clean brief (with no identifying information). See Page 5-6 of the Rules for full specifications. 

01/12/16 The briefs should be submitted as PDFs

02/19/16 A clarification has been requested about whether students were allowed to say their names during oral arguments.                                     Students are to say their name, their team number, and which side they represent but must take absolute precaution not to say the name of their school and/or what state they are from. The Judges will need to know the name of each person presenting oral arguments as this is how they will be able to identify the best oral advocates of the Moot Court Competition. As a reminder, any team that mentions their law school’s name will receive a 10-point deduction against their oral argument score for that round.

02/19/16 A clarification has been requested about whether the Respondent in their oral argument may speak about the differences in the pulse lavage machine mentioned in the actual brief, but not mentioned in the problem.
Yes, the Respondent in their oral argument may speak about the differences in the pulse lavage machine.

02/22/16 A clarification has been requested about whether teams are allowed to use the audio recordings and transcripts of arguments which SCOTUS will post on their website to Moot the students especially since the two SCOTUS cases upon which the Moot Court problem is based on is set for argument this week.

No student, professor or coach is permitted to listen to, let alone use or in any formulate questions based on, the oral argument presented in the Supreme Court case. The point is to motivate research, original thought, and study by the students, not to be guided by the answers counsel may give to the Justices’ inquiries.

03/15/16 A clarification has been requested about how teams should refer to the appellate court during oral arguments, whether it should be the Federal Circuit Court or the Patent Circuit.

The Director believes that decisions of this sort are left to the advocates to discern.

03/15/16 A clarification has been requested about whether at oral argument students are able to use a diagram that was used in one of the courts below concerning the open-universe of cases.
Yes, since we are now at oral argument, you are able to use a diagram that was used in one of the courts below.

03/15/16 A clarification has been requested about whether “Primero” should be pronounced in English or Spanish.
Either pronunciation is fine but why not go with Spanish since we are the HNBA.
03/15/16 A clarification has been requested about whether oral arguments be delivered in the order they are written within the problem.
No, advocates may argue in whatever fashion they think is most persuasive for the side they represent. 
03/15/16 A clarification has been requested about whether only two out of three advocates can argue at the competition.
Pursuant to Rule F.2, “For teams consisting of three members, each team member must participate in at least one of the two preliminary rounds of oral argument.” All three members of a team will need to participate in at least one oral argument for the competition.