Have you ever signed up for something and during the process thought “never doing this again”? That was me for the past 2 months during our moot court competition. However, when everything came together at oral argument this past Friday (Feb. 12th) I enjoyed every second of it. Now that it’s over, I am so glad I put myself through that experience. This competition was 100% the most difficult I had ever been involved in, but also the most rewarding.
A little background.
Moot Court is an honor society to which you can “grade on” or “write on”. Once in the organization, you sign-up for a competition. I chose immigration because my ultimate goal is to become an immigration attorney. The excitement begins when your problem “drops”. My partner and I received our problem on December 18th. Our brief was due January 31st and, you guessed it, we researched and wrote up until the last second. But wait there is more. Then came oral argument preparation. We had 1 day to prepare our argument outlines because we began “mooting” the following day. Our coach had several moots lined up for us. We had no time to lose because oral argument was in less than 2 weeks. Even though we are currently completely virtual, our professors and Widener staff were more than willing to help us moot. We were even allowed to do our oral argument on campus. Having the technology and court-like atmosphere helped mentally prepare us for what was coming. We had 3 oral arguments and it was absolutely amazing because I was able to demonstrate that I knew the law and that we, as respondent, had the better argument.- Obviously!
Final thoughts.
This competition absorbed so much of my time, but all the time and work I put into the competition allowed me to enjoy oral arguments because I knew I was prepared. I am in my final semester of my 2L year and this competition has been one of the best experiences. There were many times during this competition that I questioned myself- did I find all the relevant cases, am I missing something, how should I answer that question, how do I organize what I want to say, etc. I am so proud of myself for getting through my fears and this competition. I’m so thankful to be a part of the Widener community. The support we received from all the professors, staff, alumni, and administration was unbelievable.
Definitely give Moot Court a try, you might regret it during the process, but I assure you – it will be one of the best things you do in your law school career.
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