While the rest of the Law School community was enjoying its well-deserved Spring Break, two Campbell Moot Court Teams were busy preparing for, traveling to and competing in the American Bar Association’s Appellate Advocacy Competition for the Southeastern Region. The two teams consisted of second-year law students Josh Lee, Tom Murry and Sharon Scudder, and Kristen Atkins-Momot, Wayne Hollowell, and Catherine McCulloch. The Campbell teams competed against 27 teams representing schools from North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Ohio and Michigan. The Atkins-Momot/Hollowell/McCulloch team won its first argument. The Lee/Murry/Scudder team was 2-1 heading into the octofinals, having beaten Samford and Thomas Cooley, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen where they faced a team from Regent. Unfortunately, while Scudder and Lee presented their best argument yet, they were defeated by Regent on the oral portion of the competition by only half a point. Wayne Hollowell was named the 5th best oralist in the Southeast, out of approximately 75 advocates, by the American Bar Association “They did a terrific job and represented the school with integrity,” said Rick Lord, a professor at the Norman Adrian Wiggans School of Law. Campbell University congratulates all the Moot Court students for their hard work and excellent results.” The 2006 American Trial Lawyers Association ( ATLA) teams are also to be commended for their excellent work in this year’s competition. The second-year team of Luke Baker, Brett DeSelms, Alison Goodson and Laurie Mueller went 2-1 in the preliminary rounds over John Marshall and UNC Chapel Hill before losing on a split decision to Stetson. They were tied for fourth in the region but missed advancing to the semi-finals due to the tie-breaker formulae. The third-year team of Kristen Todd, Tyler Nabors, Tyler Ray and April Williams faced a 0-3 loss in the preliminary rounds that failed to reflect the outstanding quality of their performance. After a brutal draw in the preliminaries, the team lost the opening round against Stetson comparable to the regional championship round. “Our goal is to teach our students how to try a case and how to litigate with the highest ethical and professional standards,” says Dr. William Woodruff, professor of Law at Campbell University. “We accomplished that goal and I am very proud of their work. Their overall performance was quite an accomplishment.” Campbell’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) Regional Moot Court Team is also to be congratulated for their outstanding February performance in the regional BLSA competition. The team, consisting of Mark Cummings and Kia Scott, advanced to the quarterfinals. Although the exact rank is unknown, they finished no worse than 8th out of 27 teams representing schools from Kentucky to Florida and the East Coast to Mississippi. “They represented the school throughout the competition with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity,” said Professor Lord. “Their work in this competition demonstrated, once again, that Campbell students are simply ‘the best’.”
Campbell Commends its Moot Court Teams