Liberty Law Moot Court team sweeps first and second at national competition

Liberty University School of Law’s Moot Court team made an impressive showing at the 23rd annual Leroy R. Hassell Sr. National Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition at Regent University Nov. 17-18, achieving things never done before in the 18-year history of the school’s Moot Court program.

After two preliminary rounds and three knockout rounds, it was an all-Liberty Law affair in the championship competition as two pairs of Liberty Law students squared off, something Moot Court Coach and School of Law Professor Scott Thompson said has never been done by the program.

In the end, Liberty Law 3Ls Cameron Andrews and Julia Robertson narrowly defeated their teammates Kristy Batista and Maggie Cassidy by a score of 3-2 in the final.

“It was kind of a surreal moment,” said Thompson, adding that other coaches remarked on how rare Liberty’s accomplishment was. “It was once-in-a-lifetime for us, but it’s pretty rare for any school, even the powerhouses, to send two teams into the finals.”

During the tournament, Liberty’s teams competed against students from law schools such as Texas Tech, Baylor, Stetson, Wake Forest, and William & Mary, among several other prestigious law programs.

For the competition, not only were the students judged based on their oral argument, but they were also judged on their legal briefs, which were written in the leadup to the competition. Along with taking first and second overall in the competition as teams, Batista and Cassidy claimed fifth place in the tournament for their written brief.

Robertson was named the second best oralist during the preliminary rounds, while Batista and Andrews were named the fourth and fifth best oralists during the preliminary rounds, respectively.

Liberty’s two teams navigated their way through the preliminary round on Friday, and due to their margin of victory the first day, Batista and Cassidy received a first round bye into the tournament’s quarterfinals.

In total, Liberty Law was a combined 9-0 heading into the championship match against each other, a welcome opponent for each of the teams, Cassidy said.

“It was definitely exhausting,” she said, describing the first four matches that she and Batista participated in. “But the final round was a lot of fun. It was stressful because it was the final, but it was so good to go against our teammates because it really felt like practice out there.”

“I loved every aspect of this trip because the girls I competed with are phenomenal people in life and in law school,” Robertson added. “We knew everything in and out, and we wanted to go against each other in the final round because at that point it was like the stress was lifted since we all knew we were going to win first or second place no matter what.”

Competing against other prestigious law schools and powerhouse Moot Court teams in the tournament, Andrews said it was a lot of the skills-based practice with Thompson that allowed them to be prepared to compete at the highest level.

“We just tried to focus on doing our best and our personal goals,” she said. “I really wanted to have a strong Moot Court season, so it was fun learning after the fact that our best really is good enough and even measured up against these schools that have these great records.”

With the historic tournament finish, each competitor will leave with lasting memories, different for each of them.

“It was a fun moment to be a Liberty student,” Andrews said. “I think my favorite moment was when we went one-by-one introducing ourselves to the judges after the final and seeing their faces when we told them we were all from Liberty. That was a great moment.”

Robertson said it was the reaction from Thompson that meant the most.

“The thing that stood out to me was I remember Professor Thompson, when we found out we advanced to the final round, he gave us a hug. He does not do that … and the look on his face, the joy that he just could not hide. That was amazing and something that I will carry with me.”

For Cassidy, it meant a lot to her to compete against prestigious programs.

“It means a lot to be able to go out there and do well and even win against a lot of these big-name schools,” she said. “The camaraderie between the four of us girls on this trip was really wonderful. When you’re working with teammates who are really easy to get along with and who you work well together with, that really makes a difference.”

With eight total trophies on the line at Regent, Liberty Law took home six, continuing a strong year for Liberty’s skill competition teams.

“At this point, all of our skills teams are really demonstrating the quality of Liberty University School of Law students,” Thompson added.

Referring to the ABA Law Student competition standings in 2022-23, he added, “when they look across the whole spectrum of skills — competitions, negotiation, trial, appellate advocacy, arbitration, and client counseling — they look at how well your school did across all of those competitions and they ranked as fifth last year. So this was a great weekend for our Moot Court team, but a great weekend for our skills programs overall.”