Friday, February 17, 2023
On February 4, the School of Law’s moot court program sent three third-year law students – Jonas Wells, Kent Pederson, and Jake Bryant – to the International Trademark Association 2023 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Tournament held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kent Pederson and Jonas Wells, with Jake Bryant on brief and assisting with the preparation of their arguments, won the regional tournament in Atlanta. The team also won the award for Best Brief. The team beat out last year’s national runner-up, Emory University and eliminated last year’s national runner-up for Best Brief, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, among other schools.
The team performed incredibly well with a difficult problem and complex area of the law. This year’s problem pitted a small-town record store against an internationally known pop band in a trademark dispute covering several difficult issues ranging from trademark infringement and false endorsement to trademark fair use.
Pederson and Wells engaged in two rounds of oral argument, and several of the judges commented on the preparation and skill of our oralists, including one judge who referred to Pederson’s performance as “phenomenal.”
According to the tournament’s website, this annual competition is held in honor of Saul Lefkowitz, whose entire distinguished career was dedicated to the development of trademark and unfair competition law. Approximately 80 teams enter the tournament each year to compete in six regions for a chance to advance to the national finals by submitting a written brief and engaging in an oral argument before trademark attorneys and judges.
This regional competition is comprised of teams from nine states across the southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The team will now advance to the national tournament in Washington, D.C.
Professor Andrew Connors coached the team, and Liberty Law is grateful for his expertise. This is the first time that Liberty has competed in this very specialized competition.