Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Wed, 21 Oct 2015
Edie Swann
Liberty Law students walked away with top honors at the 15th Annual Leroy R. Hassell Sr. National Constitutional Law Moot Court Tournament.
The two-day tournament, held the weekend of October 16-17 at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, concluded with the team of Chris Collins and Nate Hopkins taking second place after fierce preliminary rounds against Georgia, Texas Tech, Villanova, and William & Mary. They defeated Texas Tech again in the quarterfinals and Florida Coastal in the semifinal round but fell to William & Mary in the finals.
The team of Erika Lukenbill and Whitney Rutherford finished the preliminaries with wins over Cardozo, Georgia, and Touro. They prevailed over Elon in the quarterfinals but fell short of victory against William & Mary in the semifinal round.
All four of the Liberty Law Moot Court competitors brought home an oralist award taking four of the five top spots. Whitney Rutherford was named “Best Oralist” in the tournament with Erika Lukenbill, Chris Collins and Nate Hopkins finishing third, fourth and fifth place respectively.
According to Professor Scott Thompson, between Liberty’s two teams they only lost three rounds during the entire tournament; all to the tournament champions from William & Mary.
Since its inception, Liberty University’s Moot Court Team has advanced to national tournaments several times and has placed in the top 10 in the nation. More information on the LU Moot Court Team is available here.