FIU Law Board of Advocates (BOA) Moot Court team had an impressive run during the Monroe Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition in New York City January 28 – February 1.
The Regional Rounds of the competition are organized in association with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City and the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. The competition gives participants from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States the opportunity to interact with leading academics, policymakers, and industry players, both from the United States and abroad.
The FIU Law took the Runner-Up Team honors, losing in the final round to Regent University. The team of Daniela Abratt & Kelly Moras (Applicant side) and Tiffany Blackmon & Katrina Sacayanan (Respondent side) and Crystal Umpierre & Daniel Rock (Briefs) – advanced through seven rounds over the course of two days to reach the Final Round on Sunday.
During the semi-final round Blackmon and Sacayanan argued before Monroe E. Price (the Competition namesake and former Dean of the Cardozo School of Law) and David Schulz. In the final round, Abratt and Moras argued before Judge Loretta Preska (Chief Judge, United States District Court Southern District of New York), Professor Robert Burt (Yale Law), Asthma Uddin (lead counsel for Becket Fund), George Freeman (former attorney with the New York Times and Of Counsel at Jenner & Block) and Nathaniel Bach (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher). A final round judge commented that FIU Law was certainly the “superior team on substance” and that the final round was a “split decision” among the judges.
The team was coached by Krystin Montersil – a second-year and fellow BOA team member and Professor David Walter. The team also received assistance from Professor Hannibal Travis.
The team will advance to the Price Competition International Final Rounds, to be held in Oxford, UK, in late March 2015.
