Howard Payne University’s Moot Court Team recently competed in and received several honors at the American Moot Court Association Regional Competition at the University of Akron Law School in Akron, Ohio.

Katelyn Turner, senior Guy D. Newman Honors Academy and history major, and Rylie Burden, sophomore Honors Academy and jurisprudence major, advanced to the semi-finals, losing only to the team who later won the entire competition. Turner and Burden advanced to the next round of competition which will take place in January in San Francisco.

Adriaan Lafferty, freshman Honors Academy and jurisprudence major, was named top speaker at the competition. Additional competitor was Brock Horton, junior Honors Academy and accounting major. HPU’s Moot Court team is sponsored by Kenan Boland, assistant professor of government.

Moot Court is modeled after appellate law. Students are given a scenario and two constitutional issues to explore, as well as specific Supreme Court cases – consisting of over 1000 pages of case law – to use in developing their argument. There are two person teams who must argue both sides of an issue while also answering questions directly from the judges in the round.

The American Moot Court Association (AMCA) is the host organization of the activities. According to the AMCA website, their stated purpose is “to create practical opportunities for college students to engage with case law, hone legal reasoning and the application of law to facts, develop and communicate their own legal arguments before a panel of judges subject to time constraints, answer questions about the arguments they present, and demonstrate appropriate courtroom demeanor and forensic skill.” 

“I am so pleased with the results from this tournament,” said Boland “These competitions are tough. Students must be prepared to answer questions while also maintaining professionalism and forensic skills. Watching these students compete is just impressive. There are no divisions in Moot Court, so HPU competes against all sizes of schools throughout the country. For a small university, having both teams earn awards is impressive. Each of these students has worked so hard. They are wonderful representatives of HPU and the pre-law program.”

For more information about HPU, visit www.hputx.edu.