Miami Law’s moot court team of third-year students Kelsey McCarty and Thomas Webb were awarded the Best Brief award – the second year in a row for a Miami Law team – at the 2024 Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship. The team also finished as semifinalists.
The Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship allows the top 16 moot court programs to compete for the right to claim the national title in the 16th annual competition hosted by the Blakely Advocacy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center and sponsored by Andrews Kurth. Moot court programs qualified for the National Championship based on points accumulated during the previous year (2022-2023) at nationwide competitions.
Miami Law’s moot court team ranked third in the nation last year.
“Receiving the award felt like a true achievement,” said McCarty. “The brief is the one aspect of the tournament where the competitors are all scored against each other. So, instead of just beating teams head-to-head in oral argument, we beat out every single team with our brief score. Tom and I spent countless hours poring over our brief and, in the end, it felt great to be recognized for our time and effort.”
The brief was divided into two separate arguments: McCarty wrote the first section and Webb the second. After turning in the brief, McCarty and Webb prepared for two months for the oral arguments.
“Preparation for the competition was a tremendous amount of work, but our coach, Susan Kornspan, worked tirelessly to get us as much practice as possible while remaining responsive to our individual and unique needs,” said McCarty. Kornspan, J.D. ’90, also serves as the Charles Papy Moot Court Alumni Advisory Board chair.
“Our coach created a practice schedule for us that included an oral argument basically every other day,” said Webb. “The practice rounds were set up just like a real competition round with three judges asking us questions as we made our argument. Our coach did a great job getting amazing practice judges that included alumni, lawyers, and real federal judges.”
Read more about Miami Law’s moot court organizations.
