from staff
Florida Coastal School of Law has earned an invitation to compete in the Moot Court National Championship, an annual competition held in Houston. The Championship, which is open to the top 16 moot court programs across the country, will take place in January.
“Florida Coastal’s appellate advocacy program has emerged as one of the nation’s elite programs,” said professor Sander Moody, Coastal Law’s Moot Court Honor Board Faculty Advisor. “The competitions are strictly merit-based. Anonymous grading removes everything else to reveal work ethic and ability. The competitions show which law students consistently perform at the highest level in legal research and writing and oral advocacy. This consistent record of achievement by Florida Coastal’s moot court students reveals them for what they are — among the best in the nation at what attorneys do.”
In addition to being recognized as the top law school from the state of Florida, Coastal Law is ranked 10th in the country. Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, St. Louis and William & Mary earned top 20 moot court rankings. Coastal Law is the only law school in Florida to be invited to the National Championship.
As part of the qualifying process for the MCNC, the approximately 200 ABA-accredited law schools across the country earn points based on their performances in major moot court competitions each academic year.
This year alone, Coastal Law won a national title at a prestigious competition hosted by the Williams Institute at UCLA, defeating New York University in the finals, and a championship in a competition hosted by the Navy’s JAG Corp, defeating the University of Florida in the finals. Florida Coastal’s moot court students reached the final round in six of the nine moot court competitions they attended this year.
In the nine moot court competitions, Coastal Law won three Best Brief Awards, including winning the Best Brief Award at the Florida state championship, and six Best Advocate Awards. Coastal Law also had a brief place in the top 10 percent at an international commercial arbitration competition in Vienna, Austria attended by more than 230 law schools from around the world.
“It’s been rewarding to watch the most competitive law firms and other organizations here in Florida, and across the country and in Europe, recognize this in granting interviews and job offers to our students,” said Moody.