By Joe McMullen '06
Co-chair of the Extramural Moot Court Board

If the great Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero were with us today, he would agree that every participant in the Lile Moot Court Competition demonstrated mastery of Cicero's Six Maxims of Persuasion during his oral arguments. I wouldn't disagree with him, but I would suggest that every one of the Lile arguments failed to deliver on two additional maxims essential to any truly great oral argument. First, oral argument should always be delivered in a random city during the course of a roadtrip with a bunch of your friends. Second, oral argument should not be used to attack or humiliate your fellow classmates, but rather it should be employed as a tool to lay the smackdown on anyone who didn't have the foresight to choose to attend the best law school on the planet.

This semester, many among our ranks stepped up to the challenge posed by these maxims and set out to represent Virginia Law at extramural moot court competitions from New York City to Nashville. And represent, they did. U.Va. teams advanced to quarter- and semi-final rounds of regional and national competitions, including the Vanderbilt University National First Amendment Moot Court Competition, the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, and the Pace Environmental Moot Court Competition. After riding off into the sunset alongside second-year Kara Kennedy with their plaque for reaching the quarterfinals of the Vanderbilt competition, third-year Ambi Biggs exclaimed, "Participating in the competition was an extremely rewarding experience."

The Law School also received special recognition at the Howard University L.C. Moore Moot Court Competition as the recipient of the 'Best Brief for the Respondent' award. First-year Serenity Norman, who co-wrote the brief with David Feinberg and Rob Weissert, felt that the rewards of participating extended well beyond the award her team received. "Representing U.Va. was an honor. The competition was a learning experience more important to my future career than many of my classes."

The extramural moot court season has recently come to a close, but I encourage all rising second- and third-years with an interest in oral or written advocacy to consider participating in one of the many competitions offered next year. As your new extramural chairs of the Moot Court Board, Second-year Crissy Daly and I are eager to continue the expansion of the extramural moot court program that began last year thanks to outgoing chairs Jamey Harris and Robert Michael. In particular, Crissy and I plan on increasing the types of advocacy opportunities available at UVA by also supporting students interested in competitions that bring advocates out from behind the podium, such as mock trial or negotiation competitions. We predict that providing support to the U.Va. Mock Trial Team, which reigned victorious at the D.C. regional round and advanced to the national round of the National Trial Competition in Texas, will make our trial advocates an even more dominant force to be reckoned with.

Whichever type of advocacy you prefer, remember that adding a roadtrip with friends and an opportunity to verbally drop a flying elbow on someone other than one of your classmates will make an extramural moot court competition the most fun you've ever had enhancing your resume and sharpening your lawyering skills. Even Cicero would agree.