The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Moot Court Honor Society (MCHS) conducted its annual training and development meeting with incoming 2L members from August 19 to 21, 2014 concluding with the annual Liza Suckle Memorial Moot Court Competition.
The competition is a required event for new members to the Honor Society and is structured to simulate external moot court competitions in order to familiarize students with the experience of preparing and delivering oral arguments. The competition is held in memorial of Liza Suckle, a Cardozo student and MCHS head coach who passed away during her final year of law school in 2005.
“It’s very exciting to keep up the tradition of the Liza Suckle competition every year and pay respect to her memory in that way,” said Saghar Esfandiarifard, the 2014-2015 Editor-In-Chief of MCHS. “It’s always great to see the students take the competition so seriously and do so well.”
Students are given less than one day to fully analyze a fictitious bench memo and trail court record prepared for the competition and to prepare oral arguments for both sides of the issue as though presenting the case to the Supreme Court. Students are required to defend both sides of the argument in alternating rounds of competition. The limited time to prepare is meant to simulate the pressure that students and competitors often face when preparing for external competitions.
After a day and a half of competitions, finalists were selected based on their scored performances. The final rounds were judged by Professor Rebecca Diller, Professor Arthur Jacobson and Carl Hurvich, a recent MCHS alumnus.
When asked about his preparation for the final round, second place finalist Joe Jestus said, “It’s impossible to not be nervous for the final round no matter what you are doing, how low-key the competition is or not. I thought the questions were harder for everybody.”
Charlotte Fabiani, the first place finisher and winner of the memorial, agrees. “I was really, really nervous. The last round was the most nerve wracking by far, primarily because the judges were faculty.” Despite the difficulty, Jestus thought the questioning was excellent preparation for the upcoming competitions this year. “I think that might be a thing to look for as I do Moot Court competitions [this year.] That as the rounds get later and later the questions get tougher and it’s necessary to prepare for that.”
In terms of preparing for future competitions, Fabiani believes the Liza Suckle Memorial is very helpful to help new MCHS member’s feet wet and experience what future competitions may be like. Citing a specific example, during one of her preliminary competitions, a Bailiff failed to give Fabiani a warning that her time was about to expire, forcing her to conclude abruptly. “It’s helpful to have experiences where, if something goes wrong, you are aware that something like that might happen in the future competitions [and be prepared for it.]”
Ultimately, while the competition was a great deal of work and stress, it helps to develop necessary skills for success at future competitions. “It was challenging to have to [argue] one side, and then have to regroup and change your mindset a little bit and prepare for the other side almost immediately after,” said Fabiani, “but I think that is an important thing to learn how to do.”
After competing against his fellow classmates in multiple rounds of competition, Jestus foresees a great deal of potential and success for Moot Court this year. “All four people in the final round were really, really good,” speaking of Fabiani as well as Brett Bacon and Ariane Rockoff-Kirk, the other finalists. “I think the future of this Moot Court team is really bright... and I think if you have more people like that willing to work hard and do well in competitions the future of this team looks pretty good.”
