Miami Law’s Charles C. Papy, Jr. Moot Court team of 3L Jose Lopez-Varela and 2L Lauren O’Neil won “Best Brief,” and O’Neil was named the second place “Best Oralist” in the 2022 Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition. The team also made it to the quarterfinal round against 26 other teams.
“We are incredibly excited about the award,” said Lopez-Varela. “The brief writing process is the most time-consuming aspect of these competitions so to end with an award was a great exclamation point to a fantastic weekend.”
The team was coached by Jeanelle Gomez, J.D. ’20, Sydney Feldman, J.D. ’19, and Professor Jarrod Reich.
"I felt so grateful to win the second-best oralist award because there were so many amazing competitors and brilliant judges at the competition,” said O’Neil who is also a Miami Scholar. “For both the brief and oralist awards, it was incredibly fulfilling to see our hard work pay off. Jose and I spent our winter break and the first month of the semester writing our brief and carefully choosing every word. For oral argument preparation, we practiced twice a week doing full arguments with our coaches in addition to practice rounds in front of practitioners and other moot court board members."
The Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup Competition, hosted by The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, began in 1949 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious national moot court competitions in the U.S. The competition presents hypothetical appellate cases based on various contemporary constitutional issues related to the First Amendment. This year’s competition addressed the issues of free speech, religious liberty, and the rights and obligations of private corporations in an increasingly digital age.
“We spent a lot of time with our coaches and moot court team members preparing for oral arguments,” said Lopez-Varela. “We would like to thank our coaches Sydney Feldman, Jeanelle Gomez, and Professor Jarrod Reich for their time and effort throughout the process!”
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