TYLA conducted its annual State Moot Court competition last month during the State Bar Annual Meeting. As in the past, State Moot was a success. This year the problem was a criminal case concerning a lewd gesture, freedom of speech, and the Court of Criminal Appeals' “8th Grade Grammar Test” among other issues.
Seven law schools from around Texas participated in the three day event: Baylor, Houston, St. Mary's, South Texas College of Law, Southern Methodist, Texas Tech, and Texas Wesleyan. Each team competed against every other team during the preliminary rounds with the four highest ranking teams advancing to the semi-finals. The four advancing teams were Houston, South Texas, Southern Methodist, and Texas Tech. These teams competed before panels of sitting and former appellate court judges, sitting trial judges, and appellate law specialists. For the championship, Texas Tech defeated Southern Methodist before the judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and “visiting judge” Rob Cañas of the County Court at Law No. 10, Dallas County.
The award for Best Brief went to Texas Tech University, with St. Mary's University placing 2nd and Southern Methodist placing 3rd. Rickie Cayton from Texas Tech was named Best Oral Advocate. Randy Macchi from the University of Houston placed 2nd and Ryan King from South Texas College of Law placed 3rd.
A big thank you goes out to all the lawyer volunteers who served as judges over the three days. The Dallas Bar Association and Dallas Association of Young Lawyers provided dozens of attorney volunteers to judge the competition. Kudos are also owed to Zachary Hall who drafted the problem. A staff attorney at Austin's Third Court of Appeals, Zak has drafted the competition problem and bench brief the last two years, as well as, volunteering his time as a judge during the preliminary rounds.
TYLA has already started preparing for next year's competition, which will focus on current issues in civil law. The competition will be held in Fort Worth during the State Bar's Annual Meeting, June 8-10, 2010. If you are interested in participating in next year's competition, please contact Clint Harbour at clintharbour@yahoo.com.
