Cory Scott

Cory Scott (2006)

1 What year did you participate and who was your teammate?

I competed in the fall of 2006, and my teammate was Julie Olivas

2 If you have graduated and moved on, what do you do now and how did moot court help you for your future?

I am currently in my last year of law school and I would say that Moot Court offers the best chance for an undergraduate student to get a small peak into what law school studies can be like. Particularly, Moot Court allows a student to practice briefing cases, and to identify the holding and rationale courts use in issuing their rulings. In my experience as an economics major, there was nothing even close to Moot Court that gave me an advantage over my fellow classmates once I was in law school. Furthermore, whether you go to law school or not, the public speaking abilities you gain from doing Moot Court can transcend to virtually anything you do in everyday life or otherwise. The bottom line is that being able to articulate your point while under pressure is an invaluable trait, and in my opinion there is nothing that hones in that skill like Moot Court.

3 What is your fondest memory about moot court?

My fondest memory would have to be the regional tournament itself and finally being able to put all the hard work and practice into action. Standing in front of a District Court judge who is firing questions about whether strict scrutiny should apply to the given fact pattern, and actually being able to respond intelligently without my voice cracking was a complete rush and something that I’ll always remember.

4 What was the best thing about moot court?

As I said already, learning to articulate complex legal arguments under pressure has proven invaluable and in my opinion was the best thing about Moot Court.

5 What was the worst thing about moot court?

Whether or not this qualifies as the “worst” thing is a matter of opinion, but to be successful in Moot Court you really do have to put in the time and effort, something that not everyone is able to do.

6 What do you miss about moot court?

I still get to argue in front of judges as part of a law school honors program, so the rush of making legal arguments to seasoned legal professionals is something I still get to enjoy, otherwise that would be the thing I would miss most about Moot Court. I suppose I miss having less pressure in undergrad Moot Court and slightly less expectations from the judges, however with the rising level of competition in undergrad Moot Court this may not be true anymore.

7 What tournaments did you compete in and what were they like?

I competed in the regional tournament at Long Beach State, and the tournament was a lot of fun. The slight nerves I had before the tournament went away as we progressed through the rounds and I found myself enjoying the adversarial process more and more.

8 What advice would you give future mooters?

My advice would be to work hard and take the advice of the professors and guest judges seriously. When you finally get to argue in a tournament, the judges will have a wide range of legal knowledge and familiarity with the facts, meaning that a variety of perspectives will benefit you greatly in the end.

9 Who was the BEST mooter you ever saw?  What made him or her so good?

I don’t remember the name of the best mooter that I saw, but he was from Patrick Henry and competed in the same tournament I did in 2006. He had a complete mastery of the pertinent case holdings and factual distinctions, and was profoundly confident when addressing the judges while being extremely respectful and deferential to the judges and their viewpoints. Being able to read the way a judge is perceiving an issue and then being able to draw them down a line of reasoning that links their existing logic with the conclusion that you want is what makes the best mooters.

10 Why should someone consider moot court?

Whether or not you want to apply to law school, Moot Court refines your speaking abilities in a way that will be valuable to everyone. If you are interested in public speaking Moot Court is one of the best ways to test your skills in a challenging academic environment unlike anything else in undergrad. If you are considering law school, Moot Court is the best thing you could do to give you and idea of what you are getting yourself into.