UNT Moot Court teams take first, second place at statewide tournament

Two two-student teams from UNT's Moot Court Squad took first and second place at the Texas Tech School of Law tournament in October. In addition, members of UNT's squad won six of the top 10 speaker awards.

The statewide tournament was one of several organized each year by the Texas Undergraduate Moot Court Association, which was founded to advance the legal and analytical skills of undergraduate college students who plan to attend law school.

During a moot court, a simulation of an appellate court's proceedings, teams of two students examine a legal problem and present arguments for both sides of the case to a group of appellate judges. The judges review the students' arguments and ask them questions about the case. All first- and second-year law students at American colleges and universities must participate in a moot court activity.

The UNT team of senior international studies/French major Jacqueline Coley from Corpus Christi and senior sociology/political science major Ryan Rollo from Fort Worth defeated fellow UNT students Guy Sereff, a senior economics major from Flower Mound, and Phil Stauffer, a senior political science major from Richardson, to win the Texas Tech tournament.

The championship was the first for UNT's Moot Court Squad since it began competing during the spring 2000 semester, says Kimi King, associate professor of political science and squad sponsor.

"For the first time in three and a half years, we went into the final rounds knowing that we would emerge as champions," King says. "It is rather bittersweet to go into finals knowing that you are guaranteed to win, since it means that one of your teams is going to lose. But that is the kind of problem that all coaches would like to have. It is not something that happens very often in competition."

A third UNT team of Victoria White, a junior political science major from Fort Worth, and Andy Lang, a junior history major from Richardson, advanced to the quarterfinals.

All teams in the tournament argued "Denolf v. Olympus State University." The fictional case involves a college student who is required to register as a convicted sex offender under the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, a real law that was passed in 2000. The student's university decides to post his information on a university web site and send letters to the students in his classes about his sex-offender status. The student sues the university, claiming a right to privacy and due process.

Rollo says it was an honor to compete against a team of fellow UNT students in the finals of the Texas Tech tournament.

"It really speaks volumes about the type of program that we have and the amount of preparation that we put into the case and our arguments," he says.

The UNT Moot Court Squad members who won top 10 slots for best overall speaker in the Texas Tech tournament were Sereff, named third best overall speaker; Coley, fourth; Stauffer, fifth; Rollo, sixth; White, seventh; and Jennifer Poole, a junior political science major from Denton, ninth.

UNT's Moot Court Squad will compete in a national competition at the University of Texas at Arlington Jan. 30-31.

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Rep. Burgess announces $3.1 million for Center for Advanced Research and Technology
• Latest UNT IDs serve as debit and ATM cards
• E-trans offers many benefits
• Holiday giving continues on campus
• Winter weather brings possibility for closures
• UNT creates Center for Psychosocial Health
• Council focuses on daycare
• Women’s Studies Program sponsors new book club
• TAMS students honored in science competition

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