Mercer wins school's national moot court competition

FEB. 6, 2010 - A moot court team from Mercer University won the Charleston School of Law's third annual national moot competition Saturday.

The Mercer team, which included students Falen O. Cox and Emily E. Macheski-Preston, bested 25 other teams from a total of 19 schools that took part in the competition.  Cox and Macheski-Preston also took honors for having the best petitioner's brief in the contest, which focused on a constitutional question based on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.  Macheski-Preston also was named the Best Oralist, or contestant with the best oral presentation before a group of judges.

Runner-up in the 26-team contest was the two-person team from Florida Coastal School of Law:  Catherine J. Scott and Jessica L. DeSantis.  Other honorees are listed below.

"By having more than 25 teams here, it's clear in the eyes of the legal and academic communities that we're on the map as a major law school," said Assistant Professor Miller Shealy, who helped to coordinate the event. 

Teams participating in the weekend event are from Cardozo, Duke, Elon, Florida Coastal, Florida State, Liberty Mercer, New York University, North Carolina Central, Seton Hall, Temple, Touro, Valparaiso, Widener,  and the universities of Detroit - Mercy, Florida, Maryland and South Carolina.

Each team included two to three law students.  The moot court competition is an appellate advocacy competition in which students argue before a panel of moot court judges drawn from the faculty at the Charleston School of Law, local attorneys and area judges.  The student competitors argue points of law as though they were appearing before the United States Supreme Court. 
 
The case being argued by the students is drawn from a real case currently pending in the United States Supreme Court:  McDonald v. City of Chicago. The McDonald case, which will be decided by the Supreme Court in the next few months, involves major issues of constitutional law. 

In McDonald, the Court will decide whether the Second Amendment's language providing that citizens have the right to keep and bear arms applies to the states.  The court is hearing a challenge to the City of Chicago's very restrictive gun laws.  In essence, the city of Chicago is attempting to ban most firearms in the possession of private citizens.
 
Preliminary rounds were being held Friday in the meeting rooms at the Embassy Suites Hotel.  Final rounds were Saturday. 

Winners in the competition included:

Team Champion: Mercer (Team I): Falen O. Cox and Emily E. Macheski-Preston.

Runner-Up: Florida Coastal (Team X): Catherine J. Scott and Jessica L. DeSantis.

Team Semi-Finalists:  DePaul (Team A): Paige Roncke and Jonathan Mikrut; Florida State.

Team Quarter-Finalists: 

• Duke (Team B): Caroline Mix and Beth DeFrancesco;
• Florida State (Team E): Brandon White and Ashley Ryon;
• Univ. of Florida (Team Q): Neda Lajevardi and Mary Katherine Watt;
• Univ. of Maryland (Team V): Joanne McNamara and Christopher Dahl.

Best Pet. Brief: Mercer (Team I): Falon O. Cox and Emily E. Macheski-Preston

Best Prelim Oralist: Neda Lajevardi.

Best Oralist: Emily E. Macheski-Preston.

Professionalism: Florida State (Team E): Brandon White and Ashley Ryon.

More:  www.csolmoot.com