By Seth Brostoff ’09
Features Editor

Every year, two third-year law student trial advocates win the William Minor Lile Moot Court competition. Unlike many facets of the law school experience, in order to succeed in Moot Court the participants must succeed as teams. In many cases, this dynamic has lasted beyond Law School. After a helpful recommendation from a curious Moot Court participant, the Law Weekly has chosen to survey this select subsection of the UVA Law alumni body.

Because Moot Court participants are usually friends before they enter the contest, it is not surprising that many remain close friends for years after they finish law school. However, a surprising number of teammates even practiced law together after graduating from UVA Law.

For example, Jim L. Flegle, Jr. ’77 and Thomas Melo ’77 won the award their third year. They practiced together at Bracewell & Patterson for several years, and are also the Class of 1977’s fundraising captains.

This doesn’t surprise Jon Lucier ’08, one of the Moot Court Board’s presiding justices.

“It’s not easy and like other challenging opportunities in Law School, there’s a certain espirit de corps that comes with completing it.”

Probably the most famous pair of Moot Court winners were Edward M. Kennedy ’59 and John V. Tunney ’59, who were law school roommates, and won the prestigious competition in 1959. Kennedy became a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts three years later as a Democrat; Kennedy’s brother and several nephews also attended the Law School.

Tunney joined him in the Senate in 1971, as a Democrat from California, after several terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In The Candidate (1972), Robert Redford plays the part of “Buddy McKay,” whose story is based on Tunney’s own political career. Tunney was later defeated in 1976 by S.I. Hayakawa.

Quite a few Moot Court winners, and even teams, have ended up back at the Law School. Winner Al Turnbull ’62 became a professor in the mid-60s and later became head of admissions at UVA Law. Turnbull also served on the three-person subcommittee that established the familiar Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS). R. Page Henley ’63 is currently a lecturer at UVA and his fellow-winner in 1963, Stanley Dees, is an honorary faculty member at the JAG School next door. Lucius Bracey, Jr. ’67 and Dennis P. Duffy ’82 are among other winners to teach at the University.

Samuel B. Witt, III, a 1964 winner, served as general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, the nation’s second largest tobacco company. He was also a member of the VMI Board of Visitors when women were first admitted to the previously all-male military academy in Lynchburg.

Thomas Igoe ’72 served as Chair of Thelen Reid & Priest, one of whose named partners, A.J. Gustin Priest, was a Professor of Law at UVA and a trial advocacy lecturer in the late ’60s when Igoe was a student.

Holly Beth Fitzsimmons ’76, the first woman to win the competition, became an assistant U.S. attorney in 1978. She is now a U.S. magistrate judge in Connecticut, where she also teaches trial practice at Yale Law School. Judge Fitzsimmons was most recently in the news for her role in the trial of Hassan Abujihaad, an American accused of disclosing classified naval intelligence to terrorists.

Many moot court winners have gone on to use their trial advocacy skills in the public service, including several public defenders. At least one former UVA-trained lawyer is a minister; another is a managing director at an investment bank; at least one is the father of a current 2L. And one is just a plain old descendant of Thomas Jefferson—who was not a lawyer, but at least founded the University in 1819.