Miami Law’s team of Julianna Rubin and Nicholas Mucerino, both 2Ls, took home best oral advocacy in the Tulane Baseball Arbitration Competition. They beat out 40 teams and over 100 participants to win the award. The team was advised by J.D./LL.M. in Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law graduate Evan Green and current LL.M. student Aaron Caputo, who had previously competed at Tulane.
“When I heard our school called I was in disbelief,” said Rubin. “Honestly I feel very blessed to be recognized with such a prestigious award chosen by some of the most important executives in the industry. It proved that all the hard work I had put in over winter break had paid off, in a very big way.”
The Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition, in its 13th year, is a simulated salary arbitration competition modeled closely on the procedures used by Major League Baseball. Like most law school moot court competitions, the National Baseball Arbitration Competition's main goal is to provide participants with the opportunity to sharpen their oral and written advocacy skills. The competition, however, is unique in that it allows law students to sharpen these skills within the specialized context of MLB's salary arbitration proceedings.
In preparation for the competition, the students first asked Green, who works in the Baseball Division for CAA, for some advice on how they should approach the competition. From there, they researched their assigned players, reading articles, analyzing data, listening to various podcasts, and even watching MLB networks to delve into the world of arbitration.
“The biggest thing was analyzing the statistics and letting the numbers build the argument, then creating a narrative around it,” explained Rubin. “In terms of oral arguments, we practiced with current Miami LL.M. student Aaron Caputo (who participated last year while at CSU Marshal) and tried to really capture the numbers and present each case in a way to best represent our client. I believe the ability to combine the numbers, the narrative, and politics, is what lead me to bring home best oral advocate for Miami.”
“While I did compete in the competition and this was a team award, Julianna did the vast majority of the work and lead the Oral Arguments at the competition in Tulane,” said Mucerino. “I was responsible for the introductions. This team award could not have been accomplished without Julianna's work ethic and commitment to representing the University of Miami in the best fashion possible.”
This award follows Miami Law’s victory last year at the Villanova Sports Case Competition and placing at the top at Tulane in 2014, 2013, and 2011.
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