Students Gain Legal Skills in Fall 2018 Holderness Moot Court Competitions

With the end of the Fall 2018 competition season concluding in November, UNC School of Law’s Holderness Moot Court represented the school with the same types of success that it marked in 2017. The highlights this year include:

Negotiations Team

3Ls Rana Odeh and Jasmine Plott, members of UNC Holderness Moot Court’s 3L American Bar Association (ABA) Negotiations Team, tied for first place in their regional competition at Elon Law School in November. Odeh and Plott will compete for the national championship in Chicago in January. Carolina Law was also represented brilliantly at the regional competition by Evan Dancy and Coker Holmes, the other 3L members of the Holderness ABA Negotiations Team. Both teams were coached by Professor Sam Jackson ’77. This is the second time in three years that Jackson has qualified a Holderness team for the ABA National Negotiations Championship. 

National Team

In November, all six members of the Holderness National Team brought home honors. The team competed at the Fourth U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., at the regional competition of the National Moot Court Tournament. The team of Tyra Pearson 3L, Megan Shook 3L and Edward Woodall 3L shared the tournament’s top recognition for “Best Brief.”

Rachel Kokenes 3L, Marie Farmer 3L and Matt Hinson 3L just missed advancing to the semifinal round and, instead, shared the tournament’s “Elite Eight” honors. Last year, the same team brought home “Elite Eight” honors from the Charleston National Constitutional Law Moot Court Tournament.

International Moot Court Team

Four 2L members of the Holderness International Team – Michael Peretz, Zachary Shufro, Claire Smith and Jennifer Cofer – traveled with Martin H. Brinkley ’92, dean and Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor of Law, to London to compete in the Middle Temple competition over fall break in October.

“This fall, former Dean Ken Broun and I accompanied our Holderness International Team to London, where they competed against four students from the Middle Temple – one of the four medieval inns of court where Britain has trained barristers for centuries,” says Brinkley. “Our Carolina Law students more than equaled – they usually outperformed – their competitors, getting rich feedback in oral argument technique from panels of British and American judges. All this in historic courtroom settings at the Old Bailey and the Royal Courts of Justice. This is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done as dean. I couldn’t have been prouder of our students.”

Additional Teams

Holderness Moot Court also recognizes the following students who represented UNC this fall:

• In New York City, at the Hispanic Latino/Latina Law Student Association Competition: 3Ls Sana’a Bayyari and Natalie Kutcher. 
• In Fort Lauderdale, at the Asian American Law Student Association’s Thomas Tang Moot Court Competition: 3Ls Tae Hun Park and Xiaolu Sheng, and 2Ls Nur Kara and Brett Orren.
• In Atlanta, at the Emory Civil Rights and Liberties Moot Court Competition: 3Ls Alexis Weiss, Joscelyn Solomon, Daniel Kale, Lindsay Frazier and Michael Roberson. 
• In Virginia, at the William & Mary Law School Negotiation Tournament, 2Ls Briana Kelly, Lena Madison, Kylie Norman and Nute Thompson.
• In New York City, at the ABA National Arbitration Competition, 3Ls Blake Benson, Sheri Dickson, Rebecca Floyd and Richard Lowden, and 2Ls Mollie McGuire, Anna Gillespie, Chelsea Pieroni, and Charles Plambeck.

“Holderness is incredibly proud of our teams and their effort,” says Donald Hornstein, Aubrey L. Brooks Professor of Law and faculty advisor to the Holderness Moot Court program. “We look forward to next semester and our continued success.”

-December 7, 2018