Court was in session and Cardozo Law students won their cases—taking home trophies from national moot court competitions at Tulane Law School and NYU Law School the weekend of Feb. 24. Students from the Cardozo Moot Court Honor Society took first place in sports law, besting 25 other teams in Louisiana, while their classmates won the immigration law competition in New York City, beating 14 law school teams from around the country.
“It's a great thing for Cardozo and, especially, for our Moot Court program.” Said Jonah Brill ’17. “A lot of hard work—and some luck— goes into winning a competition.”
Team members Leah Frankel ’18, Alex Stolls ’18, Stephanie DeAngelis ’18 and Jonah Brill ’17, coached by Charlie Manfredi ’17, Alex Rias ’17 and Sarah Griggs ’17, won the Tulane Mardi Gras Sports Law Invitational Friday, Feb. 24 in New Orleans. This marks the team’s fourth championship in a row. Team member Alex Stolls also won Second Best Oralist.
Cardozo also achieved a first-place win at the NYU National Immigration Law Competition. The team included Oralists Danelly Bello ’17 and TaLona Holbert ’17, Elsi Wu ’18 and Samantha Hamidan ’18.
The National Immigration Law Competition had 14 teams who competed. This year’s competition focused on whether a noncitizen can be deported on the basis of a criminal conviction that is pending direct appeal; and whether a state look-a-like substance statute can serve as a deportable offense.
The Tulane Mardi Gras Sports Law Invitational consists of 25 teams and addressed the issues of whether a commissioner of a sports league may appoint himself as an arbitrator in a disciplinary proceeding, as well as the interplay between labor law and antitrust law when a sports union dissolves and the league locks out the players.
Jonah Brill, who competed on the sports law team, said, “to win the Mardi Gras competition four years in a row, as well as the NYU Immigration Law competition in the same weekend is a true testament to the dedication of the Moot Court Honor Society members. Something about the way we assemble and operate our teams is working. Each competition is a collective team effort, so it is extremely rewarding to see the hard work put in by our oralists, opposing brief writers, and coaches be recognized with such an honor.”
