Editor's Note: A digitized photo of a team member in a practice is available. Contact Julia Ann Easley at (530) 752-8248 or jaeasley@ucdavis.edu. Law Students Gain Real Benefits from Fictitious Disputes Sonali Sarkar moves confidently to a podium in King Hall at the University of California, Davis, and introduces herself. Not as the third-year law student she is, but as a co-agent representing the fictitious Kingdom of Merapi. She is leading off a practice session for a team of five law students that has advanced to the international level of the prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition beginning April 2 in Washington, D.C. There, the UC Davis team will be among competitors from 70 schools representing 60 countries. At a regional competition in February, the Jessup team defeated all 10 teams from California, Oregon, Texas and Montana to earn its berth in the international rounds, and member Angela Choi was recognized as one of the four best oralists. The other team members are Carmel Adelberg, Steven Salcedo and Kenneth Weatherwax. The five are among about 40 UC Davis law students participating in more than a dozen mock trial and appellate competitions each year. And through the preparation and the competitions themselves that can occupy a team most of the academic year, the students learn law, develop skills and build resumes that will give them an edge in their future careers. "Moot court competitions offer a great opportunity for students to build on what they're learning in law school and apply it to a life-like scenario," says Kevin Johnson, associate dean of the law school and faculty adviser to the Jessup team. With Sarkar's introduction, the Moot Courtroom in King Hall is transformed into the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and Johnson, listening from the bench above Sarkar, becomes "His Excellency," the court's president. For the Jessup Competition, organized by the International Law Students Association, the team is arguing both sides of the "The Matter Concerning the Seabed Mining Facility." The Kingdom of Merapi and the Republic of Erebus are disputing the location of a common border and the legality of a seabed mining facility, and the case involves issues of the law of the sea, use of force, state responsibility and extradition. In the fall, the team researched and wrote two 25-page memorials (briefs in the international court) based on facts provided by the competition. The team used several international treaties and convention, and cited authorities from laws established in the Middle Ages to the rulings of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Other moot court competitions focus on areas of law from evidence and environmental law to bankruptcy and entertainment law, and on skills from representation in a jury trial or appellate hearing to client counseling and negotiation. Jessica Mahoney chairs a student-run board that administers most of the appellate competitions, and she will participate in an evidence competition in New York City next week. She says one of the benefits of outside competitions is the opportunity to appear, not before professors the student know, but before judges unknown to them. "That's true in practice too." At competitions, panels of real-life judges and attorneys evaluate the students' efforts for team and individual awards. While competitions vary depending on their focus, the panels generally consider the facts of the case and the law neutral to select winners based on the quality of their writing, arguments and oral presentations. Faculty advisers, like Johnson, help teams hone their oral presentations, and other faculty members and outside attorneys also critique presentations. For Jessup, they pepper the students with the kinds of questions they'll face from judges and afterwards offer advice to the students on the substance of their arguments to their pace of speech and hand gestures. But the students also coach one another. "That's the good thing about practice," says Salcedo, the Jessup team's captain. "We turn on each other like piranhas. We moot each other." The moot court competitions supplement a curriculum rich in practical experience with skills courses, internships; and four legal clinics and an appellate advocacy practicum in which students work on real cases under the supervision of a faculty member or staff attorney. And the law school recognizes the learning value for students participating in the competitions. It offers one academic credit for participation in the Jessup competition plus one extra credit for winning the regional competition. Some other competitions also qualify for credit. "It definitely builds your confidence," says Sarkar. "Now to go before a judge won't be so daunting."