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The FIU Board of Appellate Advocates built on last year’s success and had another impressive showing at the 60th Annual Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court United States Regional Tournament this past weekend.  There were 17 schools in the competition including: Yale, Fordham, Emory, Wake Forest, the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, and Boston University to name a few.   FIU Law’s Jessup team took third place, and were one judge’s vote away from a return appearance to the International rounds in Washington, D.C.

FIU Board of Appellate Advocate members Alina Fernandez, Janet Rayo, Amaia Sanz de Acedo, all three who were returning members from last year’s team, along with new members Amirah Mohammad and Taylor Ribaudo traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana with Professor Margaret Correoso to represent FIU Law in this year’s United States South Regional Tournament.

FIU Law advanced to the quarterfinal round after defeating Emory, Loyola, St. Thomas (Miami) and the University of Georgia in the preliminary rounds. FIU Law defeated the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) in the quarterfinals.  Yale, Fordham, University of Alabama and your FIU were the semi-finalists.  In a close 2-1 decision, FIU lost to Fordham, who were the top ranked team going into the semi-final round.

In addition to the team’s oral advocacy success, which included receiving higher oral scores against the winner of top overall ranked oralist from the University of Georgia, in a head to head preliminary round, the FIU team also showed its writing prowess by winning an award for Top-Five Memorial.  FIU took home a third place award in the writing portion of the competition.  After the competition, several coaches and judges approached Professor Correoso to commend the orators, ask advice on their success in this competition, and offer potential job opportunities in their respective states of D.C., Boston, Georgia and North Carolina.

Special thanks go out to Professors Osei Tutu, Travis, Mullins and Dean Gomez for helping to moot the team members and for providing additional resources as the team prepared for the competition; and to Professors Jalloh and Robbins for answering the team’s substantive questions along the way.  In addition, the team received help from outside the FIU community, from former FIU Professor Stoa, who now teaches at Concordia University, Portland; Professor McGraw from the University of Miami; and Derrick Moore, an international law specialist from Washington D.C.

In addition, a huge thank you goes out to the FIU Board of Appellate Advocates for their help and dedication mooting the team; and to Professor Klion for her guidance and leadership and support.  Most importantly, a huge round of congratulations goes out to the Jessup competition team, who spent days and weekends researching and writing the Memorials, and weeks practicing for the oral rounds.   Since September, Professor Correoso and the team have spent countless hours preparing for the competition.  Professor Correoso helped connect the team with experts in the field of international law, helped them get the resources necessary to prepare the memorial, and helped the team practice.   Congratulations to the FIU Law Jessup team for representing FIU so well in the International law arena.