Vegas Recap

I returned from Vegas on Sunday night and it was a pretty great trip. We didn’t have too much time to do the whole “Vegas” thing, but the competition was a really valuable experience and my partner and I did well. If you don’t remember, I went to Las Vegas as a representative of my law school to compete in the regional National Appellate Advocacy moot court competition. Teams can be made up of either two or three students (most schools seem to send teams of three) and Oregon sent two two-person teams. We’ve been practicing for this for over the past two months. My partner was Matt Lehman, another 2L. There were two issues that we were arguing: one was a Fourth Amendment search/seizure issue and the other was a question of judicial discretion afforded by the Sentencing Reform Act and whether shaming punishments are permissible. I was arguing on the sentencing issue, but the competition requires teams to argue as both petitioner and respondent.

We arrived Thursday and really just dropped off our luggage at the hotel and headed to the federal courthouse. We stayed at the Alexis Park Resort, which sounds much nicer than it really was. Our cable was always turning off, the water pressure was really weak, the AC seemed to have a mind of its own, etc…I think the American Bar Association chose it because it was a non-gaming resort, which is a rarity in Vegas. At the courthouse we attended a team meeting where they explained the competition format and rules. We also found out our brief score, which was a very respectable 83/100 (the highest brief score turned out to be 86). This gave us a good feeling and definitely an advantage heading into the oral argument rounds as our brief was to count as 33% of our total score per round. On Thursday night we faced two women from UC Berkley. They were pretty good but Matt and I felt like we had won. Given this, we were surprised to find out that they had beat us on the oral argument portion. Fortunately our brief score was much higher than theirs and carried us to the win. Friday night our team from U of O went to the Hard Rock for dinner.

On Friday, we had a majority of the day to prepare/relax. We met as a team for a few hours, got some lunch, and headed over to the courthouse. On Friday night we took on UNLV who ostensibly had a “home court advantage.” Fortunately for us, their team wasn’t that great and we beat them with a wide margin of victory that padded our ranking. At the urging of one of our teammates, we hit The Mirage’s buffet that night, and it was pretty good. I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat or drink $25 worth of food or beverages, but it was a good experience.

Saturday morning was round three and we were paired against another 2-0 team. Out of 36 teams, we were ranked third and UCLA was ranked tenth. This was also the last round that our brief score was to count towards our point total. Both Matt and I didn’t feel great about our performances, but we managed to win, which sent us into the semi-finals, where we would be arguing without the advantage of our brief score.

In Round 4 we faced two women from Arizona State University. We were respondent again, and after hearing them argue, we knew we were up for a stiff challenge. Fortunately Matt and I improved on our earlier performances and defeated them, which sent us into the finals.

In the Finals we were facing a team from Hastings Law School. The other team from Oregon had faced this team earlier in the competition and had been beaten pretty soundly, so we knew that we were going to have a tough time. After they won the coin toss, they thankfully selected to argue as petitioner, which allowed Matt and I to argue as respondent for the third time that day! This certainly allowed us to hone our arguments and not make the difficult mental shift from one side of the case to the other. After hearing both of our opponents present their arguments, it was clear that they posed our biggest challenge. Unfortunately for both teams, we only had a two-judge panel, rather than the three judge panels we had received in Rounds 1-4. The two-judge panel meant a lot fewer questions, which in turn forces the advocate to speak in a narrative fashion (monologue) for a long time. Although this seems counterintuitive, most advocates (myself included) prefer to think on their feet and answer questions rather than attempt to just deliver a persuasive speech.

They didn’t tell us who won the round until later that night at an Awards Ceremony. Hastings ended up winning by just a few points and so they are on to Nationals in Chicago. One of the judges had us dead even, while the other gave a slight edge to Hastings. I’m sure if our brief score had counted we would have won. The Awards Ceremony proved fruitful for a few other reasons. Out of the 36 teams who were there, they award small cash prizes for the five best briefs. Matt and I won $100 for being the fifth best brief in the competition. The competition also honors the ten best oral advocates. They take the two best individual scores from the first four rounds to arrive at the average. Fortunately I had received a 94 and a 91 in two previous rounds and so I was honored as fifth best oral advocate out of the 80 or 90 so law students who were there.

Saturday night we knew we were done with the competition so we wanted to get out and experience Vegas. We had dinner at Caesar’s Palace and then made our way to the Venetian, Bellagio, Treasure Island, Paris, and New York New York. Unfortunately there were also about 40,000 other NASCAR fans who wanted to “experience Vegas” too. They were all in town for the NASCAR Las Vegas 400. While it made for good people-watching, it didn’t make it very easy to get around anywhere. The crowds, when mixed with a good splash of exhaustion from a long, mentally-challenging day, rendered a recipe for an early evening. I was probably back in our hotel by 1:00AM, which thanks to the earlier daylight savings time, was really 2:00AM. I had to wake up by 7:00 to pack and head to the airport.

Despite all this, it was a great time and a great experience. I definitely feel more capable as an advocate and I was able to bond with some of my classmates at a level that wouldn’t have happened without this competition. I’m glad to be finished with the Tuesday/Thursday practices, but I certainly won’t look back with any hint of regret on these few paragraphs in the story of my life.