By Alec Zadek '08
News Editor

Four UVA Law students have received awards for their performance in extramural moot court competitions. Jon Ganter ’08, Dave Mroz ’08, and Jon Lucier ’08 won the award for Best Brief in the International Trademark Association’s Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Regional Competition, and Ryan Faulconer ’08 was named Best Oralist in the Vanderbilt First Amendment Moot Court Competition.

Jon Ganter, Dave Mroz, and Jon Lucier worked throughout winter break on their brief for the Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition. Upon returning to UVA for the spring semester, they were coached by Daniel Sennott and Jeffrey Mullins at the JAG School, who taught them strategies for effectively arguing their key points during the on and off brief oral arguments.

David Mroz credited much of the team’s success to their coaches.

“We had three or four practices with Dan and Jeff, and they are definitely the biggest reason why we advanced to the next round.”

The team’s hard work was rewarded; they earned the award for best brief, and they received the highest cumulative score in the region for the oral and written arguments, which earned them an invitation to the National Final round.

The Saul Lefkowitz Competition is hosted annually by the International Trademark Association. The Association holds four Regional competitions; the highest scoring team from each region is invited to Washington D.C. for the National Final round. In the past, the finals have been judged by appellate court judges.

Last year, Ryan Faulconer represented UVA Law at the Saul Lefkowitz Competition, where his team came in second place in the regional competition and received the award for Best Oral Argument. This year, Ryan represented the Law School at the Vanderbilt First Amendment Competition with his partner Justin Torres, and received the highest oral argument score.

“As far as what put me over the top, the first thing was my partner, Justin Torres, and my JAG coaches, Doug Choi and Will Brown. We had four scrimmages where we ran through the arguments, and they were all very instrumental in picking out my flaws and helping,” said Faulconer.UVA extramural moot court teams have had great success this year, which may be attributed to the hard work of the UVA Law students and the commitment of volunteer coaches from the JAG school.

“It was great to have experienced advocates like Doug and Will to help us practice our arguments,” Ryan said.

Commenting on the important role JAG students played in preparing him for the competition, Ryan noted, “They were able to get a number of different JAG graduate students to come to our practice arguments. Being in front of a real panel who had read the briefs forced us to have our arguments organized and well-prepared before we ever went to the competition.”