Stephen S. Weinstein Advocacy Program to Attend Prestigious National Competitions
June 29, 2020
American University Washington College of Law is proud to announce that the Stephen S. Weinstein Advocacy Program’s Mock Trial Honor Society (MTHS) and Moot Court Honor Society (MCHS) have been invited to compete in two prestigious national competitions for the 2020-2021 academic year.
MTHS has received a special invitation to compete in the 2020 Tournament of Champions (TOC) Mock Trial Competition, sponsored by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. The Tournament of Champions is the preeminent, invite-only trial competition in the nation. This is AUWCL’s first time competing in TOC. In 2019, AUWCL had the pleasure of hosting and providing the case file for the competition. This year’s competition will be held Nov. 5-7, 2020 at Baylor University School of Law in an online competition format. Each team will try both sides of a civil case file in four preliminary rounds (two plaintiff and two defense).
“The American University Washington College of Law Advocacy Program is excited to compete in the prestigious Tournament of Champions mock trial competition for the first time ever,” said Elizabeth Lippy, the associate director of the Advocacy Program.
MTHS student president, Zhuo Zhao, added “We are honored to have received an invitation to compete at the Tournament of Champions in November. We look forward to sending some of our strongest advocates to represent WCL and our Trial Advocacy Program.”
In addition, the MCHS has been invited to the 2021 Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship. This marks the first time AUWCL has received an invitation to this prestigious competition. After another successful competition season during the 2019-20 academic year, our students earned a national 12th place ranking and earned a place in this competition among the top 16 ranked moot court competition teams of all ABA accredited law schools.
“It truly has been a year’s long, team effort to reach this achievement,” says MCHS President Katie Sauter and Vice-President Kristen Bartolotta. “We are thankful to the members and leadership, both past and present, who laid the foundation for this accomplishment. We are proud of our organization and we look forward to continued success in the years to come.”
“This prestigious invitation is a well-deserved recognition of the incredibly hard work done by the WCL students in the Moot Court Honor Society,” said MCHS advisor, Professor Stephen Wermiel. In addition to the honor of participating in this competition, top teams, individual advocates, and briefs are awarded over $20,000 in cash scholarships.
The Advocacy Program, previously the “Trial Advocacy Program,” is directed by Professor Cynthia Jones and was recently renamed to match the law school’s longstanding, broad commitment to train students in all forms of legal advocacy, including trial and appellate litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and transactional negotiations. American University Washington College of Law is currently ranked 4th in the nation for Trial Advocacy by U.S. News and World Report, with student teams routinely excelling at competitions across the country and globe.