Competitive Teams

ASL prides itself on helping students develop into effective advocates. Our goal is to educate and train competent practice-ready lawyers. All students begin the journey toward effective oral and written advocacy during their 1L year. The Legal Process program teaches students syllogistic and rhetorical skills via participation in multiple writing assignments.

As 2Ls, students take either Appellate Advocacy or Legal Writing With a Purpose.  Appellate Advocacy provides advanced brief writing and oral argument training and culminates in an oral argument competition in which the ASL Intra-School Oral Advocacy Champion is crowned. Students who are interested in Appellate Advocacy are also eligible to apply for a position on the Moot Court Executive Board during their 3L year.

Students who complete Appellate Advocacy are eligible to compete as a member of one of ASL’s national moot court teams. National moot court teams are selected by faculty team advisors with the assistance of the Moot Court Board.  In recent years, ASL has sent moot court teams to the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition hosted by Pace University School of Law, the Energy and Sustainability Law Competition hosted by West Virginia University College of Law, and the Herbert Wechsler National Criminal Law Competition hosted by the University of Buffalo College of Law.

Students may also elect to take Trial Advocacy.  It is one of ASL’s most demanded offerings and is taught by Tom Scott, one of the more decorated litigators in Virginia.  In addition to moot court competitions, ASL usually sends teams to a national mock trial competition in Washington D.C.

ASL MOOT COURT COMPETITION AWARDS