Belmont Law sent two moot court teams to the American Bar Association’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Brooklyn, New York over the weekend of February 22-23. With 32 teams and almost 100 individual competitors just in this region, one Belmont team finished as Regional Champions, meaning they will advance to nationals in April.
The first team of John Nix, Ward Pickens, and Colin Quinn performed admirably and won two rounds of oral argument, but ultimately did not advance. John Nix received commendation as the tenth best oral advocate in the region.
The second team of Eric Donica, Marisa Garcia, and Joseph North went completely undefeated and emerged as regional champions. They were also recognized as having the number one best brief in the region. Eric Donica was named as the eighth best oral advocate in the region, and Marisa Garcia was named as the number one best oral advocate in the region.
This means that Belmont swept every category with a first place finish. This team will be advancing to the national level of this tournament that takes place in Chicago, Illinois in early April to compete against the best of the best.
Professor Amy Moore, director of advocacy, said she is proud of each and every dedicated team member that competed this past weekend. “Everyone did an amazing job of stepping up and representing Belmont in a positive light,” she said. “Thanks to Richard Swor for his efforts as assistant coach and all the wonderful alumni, local attorneys and faculty members who helped us practice before the regional competition. We are prepared to lean in and work even harder towards an amazing showing at the national level.”
When the awards were being read, the announcer had to finally ‘break the spell of Belmont’ to read out other names as also receiving awards.
Belmont students personally bested or were ranked above teams from Duke, Faulkner, Brooklyn, William & Mary, Miami, University of Texas, Samford, Texas A&M, St. Thomas, St. John, Rutgers, New Mexico, Oklahoma University, Oklahoma City, FIU, Southwestern, Cleveland-Marshall, Barry and more.
