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The FIU Law Board of Appellate Advocates extends the biggest congratulations to Kathleen Leon, Jazmin Green, and Audrey Fernandez for proudly representing FIU Law on the national stage and coming home CHAMPIONS!!! Thank you for all of your hard work.

The Team traveled to Newark, New Jersey with Judge Phyllis Kotey to represent FIU Law at the annual John J. Gibbons Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition. The issues argued at competition stemmed from Fourth and Fifth Amendment cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Mitchell v. Wisconsin and Gamble v. United States.

FIU Law was one of 43 schools competing, along with Georgetown University, Fordham University, New York University, University of Florida, University of Miami, and Villanova University, to name a few. This was the first time the Moot Court Team participated in the Gibbons competition, but word quickly spread that FIU Law came to win.

The team dominated the preliminary round, with oralists Audrey Fernandez and Jazmin Green defeating both West Virginia and the University of Florida. At the end of the preliminary rounds, FIU was seeded first among the 43 competing schools. The FIU Team swept all of the preliminary awards. Kathleen Leon received the Best Respondent Brief award, Audrey Fernandez received the Best Preliminary Round Oralist award, and Jazmin Green received the Second Best Preliminary Round Oralist award. Things only got better from there.

FIU continued to shine throughout the competition, receiving the highest praises from attorneys judging in each round. Specifically, the judges said that the FIU team was, among other things, “excellent, confident and conversational.” At the octofinals, FIU defeated Texas Tech, moving on to the quarterfinals to beat Michigan State. At the semifinals, FIU took down Fordham Law. Then, FIU beat Villanova in the Finals to become the 2019 John J. Gibbons Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition Champions!

The team wishes to thank Professors Klion, Loeb, Wasserman, Mullins, Carpenter, and Dean Moreno for helping judge team members and providing additional resources as the team prepared for the competition!

Finally, a special thank you goes out to Judge Kotey for her dedication and time to the FIU Board of Appellate Advocates, and in particular to the John J. Gibbons Team. Since February, Professor Kotey has spent countless hours and days coaching the team to success. We appreciate all of your time and hard work.

Audrey Fernandez, Kathleen Leon, Jazmin Green.