by David Ball
Staff Writer
Florida Coastal School of Law student Valarie Linnen has her days full with errands, spending time with her husband and looking after her two daughters still at home. Oh, and then there’s the reading, studying and time devoted to her law classes.
But lately, Linnen has been glued to the computer researching the latest international news on terrorism, human rights, military conditions, torture and holding heads of state accountable for torture.
“Every day I’m doing news searches to see what comes up on the international scene,” she said. “It’s a really tight schedule. It’s honestly difficult to have to find time to eat.”
But Linnen isn’t researching for fun. She is a member of the Florida Coastal moot court team, and she’s preparing to challenge 500 of the world’s top teams in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C. from April 6-12.
The Florida Coastal team has been invited to compete in the event for the third year in a row after besting 21 other teams last Sunday in the Super-Regional Moot Court competition in Miami. Florida Coastal beat the University of Alabama in the finals for the second straight year.
“They are very knowledgeable and formidable opponents, and I can’t say enough about how well spoken and smooth their abilities are,” said Linnen. “But we were just enough better.”
The Florida Coastal team consists of oralists Linnen and Rick Lasseter and brief writers Rick Marshall, Marika Sevin and Coral Williams. They are coached by Florida Coastal Associate Professor Chris Roederer, who has a little bit of experience in moot court events. In 2002, he coached a South African team to the international championship.
“The thing about this competition, you always wonder how good your students really are and how do they compare to others in the world,” said Roederer. “When you see them take on these students from these elite schools and then beat them, there’s something extremely rewarding about that. It confirms the talent you have.”
So far, the Florida Coastal team has proven its talent. Linnen won her first competition in a school-wide event in 2006 in front of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Gerald Tjoflat. “If you want to break a young lawyer down, that’s the way to do it,” she said.
Linnen and her team then won last year’s Jessup regionals and placed in the top 10 in the international championships. Florida Coastal’s team ranked in the top 21 in the 2006 championships. Recently, team members Lasseter, Linnen and Marshall won the 2007 Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition judged by the Florida Supreme Court.
According to www.bestmootcourtprograms.com, the University of Georgia team has the top national ranking so far in 2008, although Florida Coastal already beat them in the semifinal round in Miami last week.
“I think they have a chance to go all the way this year,” said Roederer. “This is the best team we’ve had at Florida Coastal, and they are just as good as the team I had from South Africa.”
But the Jessup championships will be a new challenge. The competition will remain an appellate court setting where teams are given a fictitious fact pattern and have to argue those facts as both petitioner and respondent. However, this time it will be in front of the International Court of Justice, which means the legal boundaries are unlimited.
“You go to law school to study American law and the American system, but, for lack of a better word, this is a completely foreign area,” said Linnen. “They are not applying U.S. law. You’re arguing in front of the World Court, and any country part of the United Nations is accepted.”
That’s why Linnen and her team have been pulling up news reports from the United Kingdom and other countries that document the synopsis of the competition, “balancing human rights with the prevention of terrorism.”
“I’m very excited. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been this excited,” said Linnen. “I think we have a really good shot at winning. We have a really good team here at Florida Coastal.”