FROM BSA
Dear Second Year Students,
Welcome back to HLS. I hope you all had great summers.
As second year students, you have the opportunity to compete in the Upper Level Ames Moot Court Competition, which is administered by the HLS Board of Student Advisers. The Ames Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing and advocacy in the country. Past Ames Competition winners include Professor Cass Sunstein, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Judge Henry Friendly and Justice Harry Blackmun.
How to Register for the Competition
Second-year students (or joint-degree students who are currently enrolled in their first year of post-1L law school courses) who are interested in the Competition should plan to attend an INFORMATION MEETING on Wednesday, September 14th, at 12:00 PM in Austin West. The Information Meeting will cover the logistics of registering for and competing in the Qualifying Round, with time for Q & A. We will also distribute registration forms and copies of the official rules. Students who cannot attend the Information Meeting may instead ask a potential team member to attend, or may pick up registration forms and the official rules from the BSA Office (Pound 331) during normal business hours on September 14th-16th.
Registration forms listing complete teams of four (4) students must be submitted to the BSA Office by 5:00 pm on Monday, September 19th. Late submissions will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Important Dates for Registered Teams
The case record will be distributed to registered teams on Wednesday, September 21st at noon. Appellant briefs will be due on Friday, October 21st. A team will not be permitted to withdraw from the Competition once it has submitted its Appellant brief.
On Monday, October 24th, teams will find out whether they have advanced to the second phase of the Qualifying Round. Those teams that advance to the second phase of the Qualifying Round must submit their Appellee briefs by Monday, October 31st.. Advancing teams will participate in oral arguments on Tuesday, November 8th and Wednesday, November 9th. Judges for the Q-Round oral arguments include esteemed judges and practitioners from around the Boston area, as well as HLS faculty.
Structure of the Competition
The Upper Level Ames Moot Court Competition consists of three rounds. The first round is known as the Qualifying Round or “Q Round.” Each Q Round team consists of four (4) team members who will organize themselves to write an Appellant brief and, if the team advances to the second phase, an Appellee brief.
In the first phase, each team will submit one Appellant brief, due on October 21st. Each team’s Appellant brief will be scored by at least two 3L members of the Board of Student Advisers’ Qualifying Round Review Team (QRRT). In the event of a divergence between the two scores, the Appellant brief in question will come before the full QRRT Committee for resolution. Scoring will be done anonymously and based on a rubric that will be distributed to participating teams along with the case record on September 21st.
Teams that do not score above a certain threshold on the Appellant brief will be eliminated from the Competition. They will be notified of their elimination on October 24th. Teams that score above the threshold will move on to the second phase of the Q Round. Phase two teams will submit two Appellee briefs by October 31st, each of which will respond to an opposing team’s appellant brief. Appellant briefs will be distributed to opposing teams on October 24th. All students who complete both the Appellant and Appellee briefs for Q Round Ames can receive written work credit under Option 2 of the J.D. Written Work Requirement. Eliminated teams interested in earning writing credit may still do so if they choose to write an adequate Appellee brief after elimination, however this Appellee brief will not be part of the competition.
All four team members may contribute to their team’s briefs. However, for oral arguments, teams will divide themselves into two pairs. One pair will represent the Appellant and the other pair will represent the Appellee. Each pair will argue twice: each Appellant pair against two Appellee pairs and each Appellee pair against two Appellant pairs. Qualifying Round scores will be based on points assigned to each team’s Appellant brief, Appellee briefs, and Oral Arguments. The four highest-scoring teams in the Qualifying Round will advance to the Semi-Final Round.
The Semi-Final Round presents the unique opportunity for students to brief and argue an appellate case for a panel of distinguished jurists in front of the Harvard Law School community. In 2011 the Semi-Final Round judges included, among others, Judge Kermit Lipez of the First Circuit, Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. of the Third Circuit, Judge Kiyo Matsumoto of the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Nancy Gertner of the District of Massachusetts.
The winning team in each Semi-Final Round argument will advance to the Final Round of the Ames Competition. In the past, the Final Round has been judged by Supreme Court Justices and other distinguished jurists from appellate circuits and state courts of last resort. Last year the Final Round judges were Chief Justice John Roberts, Judge Diana Murphy of the Eighth Circuit, and Judge Julia Smith-Gibbons of the Sixth Circuit.
I encourage you to join this unique academic tradition by participating in the Competition. If you have any pressing questions or concerns, please email me at ames@law.harvard.edu. I look forward to meeting you at the Information Meeting on September 14th.
Best regards,
Caitlan McLoon
Vice President, Ames Moot Court Program
Board of Student Advisers
Harvard Law School
Ellen M. Cosgrove I Associate Dean & Dean of Students I Harvard Law School I 1563 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02138 I (617-495-1881
* cosgrove@law.harvard.edu I Dean of Students Office Web Page
