SLS Students Win Moot Court and Mock Trial Competitions

SLS Students Win Moot Court and Mock Trial Competitions
Celebrating their Jessup Moot Court victory in Denver last weekend are (left to right) coaches Sarah Hoffman, LLM ’16, and Damira Khatam, JSM ’16, and team members Adam Hersh, JD ’18, John Kenney, JD ’16, Vivek Tata, JD ’16, Victoria Cadiz, JD ’18, and Mengyi Xu, JD ’17.

Stanford Law School (SLS) students scored two big victories last weekend. The school’s Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court team won the Rocky Mountain Regional round hosted by the International Law Students Association (ILSA) in Denver, and the SLS team from the Mock Trial Program was crowned the Region 13 Champion of the National Trial Competition hosted by the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA) in Seattle.

Allen Weiner, JD ’89, who served as adviser to the Jessup Moot Court team, lauded the students’ impressive performance. He was on the Jessup team for two years while earning his law degree at SLS. “These guys did a lot better than either of my teams ever did,” he said. Weiner is a senior lecturer and director of the Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law at Stanford Law School.

It was the second year in a row that the SLS Moot Court team won the regional competition. Participating this year were Adam Hersh, JD ’18, Victoria Cadiz, JD’18, Mengyi Xu, JD ’17, Vivek Tata, JD ’16, and John Kenney, JD ’16. Coaches for the team were Sarah Hoffman, LLM, ’16, and Damira Khatam, JSM ‘16. Three of the students, Hersh, Tata and Kenney, also won three of the top 10 speaker awards at the Seattle competition.

The SLS Moot Court team will represent the United States at ILSA’s White & Case International Rounds from March 27 to April 2 in Washington, D.C.

“Our team really came together and everyone stepped up at key moments,” said Kenney. “Our team was unique in that we had team members from each class year competing. Having our hard work pay off feels very rewarding. We look forward to representing the United States at the International Rounds.”

“I have learned so much from my talented teammates and coaches, who have spent innumerable hours helping me improve these skills. Jessup was the highlight of my 1L year, and it continues to be the highlight of my law school career. It has really allowed me to savor the value of teamwork and collaboration,” said Xu.

SLS Students Win Moot Court and Mock Trial Competitions 2
Proudly displaying their winning plaque in the Texas Young Lawyers Association mock trial competition are (left to right) Courtney Khademi, JD ’16, Brian Quinn, JD ’16, and Marcus Bourassa, JD ’16.

The three third-year students on the winning SLS Mock Trial team were Marcus Bourassa, JD ’16, Courtney Khademi, JD ’16, and Brian Quinn, JD ‘16. They will go on to compete at TYLA’s National Trial Competition from March 30 to April 3 in Dallas.

“It’s very rare to see a mock trial team with as much synergy as Courtney, Brian and Marcus,” said Brandon Martinez, JD ’17, co-president of the SLS Mock Trial Program, who coached the team with Co-President Kevin Bush, JD ’17, and Sara Peters, JD ’08, of the law firm of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly and Schoenberger in San Francisco. Martinez said that, as far as the team knew, Khademi was the only SLS student to qualify for the national mock trial tournament twice during law school. She first qualified two years ago.

Martinez added, “Each team member had a unique intuition about what works in the courtroom, and I’m so proud that they’ll be representing SLS at the National and as future practicing trial lawyers.”