Third-year students Jake Flansburg and Malia Takei won the 96th William Minor Lile Moot Court competition at the University of Virginia School of Law on Thursday.
The appellants bested fellow classmates Benjamin Baldwin and Nathaniel Glass, the appellees, to take home the Kingdon Moot Court Prize.
In addition, Glass won the Stephen Pierre Traynor Award for best oralist. All four finalists received the James M. Shoemaker Jr. Moot Court Award.
Presiding over the competition were Judge Michael Scudder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Judge Kevin Ohlson ’85 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and former acting Virginia Solicitor General Trevor Cox, a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth.
This year’s scenario was based on two questions about compensatory damages stemming from a former inmate’s successful First Amendment case. The first question focused on whether the plaintiff’s suit was still subject to the Prison Litigation Reform Act even though he was no longer incarcerated. The second question focused on whether the statute’s physical injury requirement applies in a case alleging a deprivation of constitutional rights.
Held annually, the competition starts with a field of about 50 individual competitors who write briefs and argue their positions in mock federal or state appellate cases created by other students.
In preparation for the competition, Flansburg and Takei scheduled sessions to research and talk through ideas as they arose and put together a shared document that at times had over a hundred pages of notes on the case law and potential arguments to make.
“We structured our brief-writing process around our respective strengths,” Flansburg said. “I am a fairly structural thinker, while Malia is exceptionally talented at generating ideas that will persuade a reader. So, we co-authored each issue, with my focus often being structure and hers often being persuasive punch.”
Takei added, “I could not tell you the number of verbal fistfights we got into over small word choices or structural decisions … [but] I do think these arguments and our strategy of co-authoring worked really well for us.”
The two have been roommates since their first year of law school and even adopted a cat together. Flansburg said neither of them had participated in moot court before, but they both had an interest in learning the ropes of appellate advocacy and decided to try it together.
“Jake was pretty convinced that we would be a great team — and he was right — but I was a little on the fence about whether I actually wanted to participate in the competition to begin with,” Takei said. “After having a surprising amount of fun at 1L oral arguments, I decided to just go for it.”
Both winners said their classmates’ help contributed to their success.
“Our classmates were kind enough to moot us daily with immensely thoughtful questions in the week leading up to oral argument,” Flansburg said. “We also took time to moot each other.”
Takei added that it was “encouraging” to win as “openly queer” law students. As for the secret to success in moot court competitions, she said she believes good oral advocacy is within anyone’s grasp, if they are dedicated and devoted to practicing and developing those skills.
“You have to be partnered with someone you enjoy working with, someone you can critique and argue with but still cooperate and compromise with,” Takei said. “You have to delve deeply into legal issues, sometimes to the point where you never want to read a treatise again.”
After graduation, Flansburg will clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and Takei will work at Mayer Brown in Chicago.
In addition to the Lile Moot Court competition, UVA Law students also compete in other appellate moot court and trial advocacy contests nationwide.
Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.
