Elon University School of Law is holding the inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition March 31 through April 2. Seventeen law schools and more than 30 teams of law students are participating in the competition, which will take place annually. More than 100 distinguished judges and lawyers have volunteered to serve as judges for the competition, including The Honorable Steven M. Colloton, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and five justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
David Gergen, chair of Elon Law’s national advisory board, adviser to four U.S. presidents, and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, is delivering special remarks at the competition.
The competition honors three of North Carolina’s most distinguished lawyers: Rhoda Bryan Billings, James G. Exum, Jr. and Henry E. Frye. Each has served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and in a variety of leadership positions within the legal profession and in public life. All three justices are founding members of the Elon University Law School Advisory Board. They are also participating in the program of events for the inaugural competition.
Schools participating in the competition include:
- Appalachian School of Law
- Charleston School of Law
- Charlotte School of Law
- Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Duke University School of Law
- Florida Coastal School of Law
- George Mason University School of Law
- George Washington University School of Law
- Liberty University School of Law
- Mercer University School of Law
- Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center
- Regent University School of Law
- University of Dayton School of Law
- University of Houston Law Center
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law
- University of Virginia School of Law
- Wake Forest University School of Law
More than 30 teams of two or three law students are competing in the competition joined by faculty members and moot court program coaches from their law schools. Elon Law anticipates that the competition will bring more than 100 people from U.S. law schools to Greensboro for the competition.
Alan Woodlief, associate dean for administration, associate professor of law, and moot court program director at Elon Law, said that preliminary rounds of the competition are being judged by dozens of attorneys, judges and law professors from Greensboro and surrounding communities and that panels of state and federal appellate judges will hear the quarterfinal, semifinal and final-round arguments. Click here for details.
The competition is at the Elon University School of Law and at the Guilford County Courthouse, both in downtown Greensboro, with the Competition Awards Banquet scheduled for Saturday evening, April 2, at the O’Henry Hotel in Greensboro.
Competitors are judged on the quality of their appellate brief and oral arguments. During the three-day competition at Elon, each team participates in a minimum of four rounds, arguing a hypothetical problem before panels of accomplished jurists, legal scholars and attorneys. The problem focuses on a constitutional law issue currently under consideration by the United States Supreme Court and/or other federal and state courts.
Additional details about the Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition are available at law.elon.edu/mootcourt.
The Moot Court Board at Elon Law, comprised of students who have excelled in the school’s annual intramural moot court competition, will play a key role in coordinating the inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition.
Event Update – posted April 1: Due to an unavoidable conflict, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (ret.) Sandra Day O’Connor had to cancel her appearance at the moot court competition evening banquet on April 2. Justice O’Connor sent her regrets and indicated that she will make every effort to reschedule an appearance at the earliest possible date. In Justice O’Connor’s absence, senior CNN political analyst David Gergen has agreed to deliver the keynote address at the banquet. Mr. Gergen is the chair of the Elon University School of Law Board of Advisors, former adviser to four United States presidents, professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He held positions in the administrations of Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Ford and Clinton. A native of Durham, N.C., Mr. Gergen is an honors graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, and is a member of the Washington, D.C. bar.