High Marks for GU Law at Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition

The weekend before Spring Break, the Admiralty Moot Court team competed in the Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition in San Francisco, California.

The members of the teams were:

Team 20
Tim “peg-leg” Fischer, Nathan “Shiver me Timbers” Griffin, and Jake “poop deck” Summers (who was truly a glutton for punishment because he was on the National Moot Court team as well this year)

Team 23
Nathan “Black Jack” Halvorson and Jacob “Landlubber” Strain (the only 1-L in the entire competition!)

Here is a brief recap, in their own words, of their experience.

This is a case about a train wreck. The issues of this case present the Court with the opportunity to pluck the stubborn hanging chad of the circuits and purify the muddy waters flowing from multimodal contractual limitations and the Interstate Commerce Act.

While the Court judicially determined that an Oar is a Shovel, Gonzaga’s two teams had an outstanding performance.

On brief, Team 20 received some of the highest marks from the judges – however, one rouge judge’s score derailed their hopes of best brief. Their brief did beat out other schools’ such as: The University of Texas, George Washington, U.C. Hastings, Louisiana State University, and Cincinnati.

On brief, Team 23 did an outstanding job. Their brief received high marks and beat Team 20 (which they will never let Team 20 forget), and also the University of Texas, Tulane, University of San Francisco, George Washington, and others.

On oral argument, both teams performed well. In the individual rounds, Nathan Halvorson beat the oralist from the University of Richmond (She eventually won best oralist -despite the loss to Nathan). Also, Jake Summers beat the oralist from the University of San Francisco (She won runner-up best oralist – despite the loss to Jake), and despite his a”automaton-like nature” according to the judges

All this despite the crazy remarks from the judges: “Don’t ever cite to the record” “Twelve, why are you saying twelve, twelve, twelve twelve” (when discussing the record) “I don’t care if it is a unanimous decision from 2 years ago by this Court; I don’t care about precedent, I am going to overrule it anyway” “Counselor, your analysis of the law is wrong – (Then from the other judge) actually, Chief Justice – I disagree.” (Further, so do the treatises) “We don’t care about the Constitution, this is a maritime case.”

Further, the team had fun in San Francisco, and Messrs. Halvorson, Summers, and Fischer were photographed for a Japanese Fashion/lifestyle magazine, becoming instant male models, and they will most likely attain cult status in Japan, if they have not done so already. Messrs. Griffin and Strain are mighty jealous.