Advocacy Programs & Competitions

The J. Newton Esdaile Appellate Moot Court Program for first year law students is run as part of the Lawyering Skills Class. Details about the program are made available on the Blackboard Learn page for the Lawyering Skills Class, which all enrolled first year students have access to. All first year students must complete the Esdaile moot court program.

Yes! The Edward C. Stone Moot Court Competition, which takes place during the fall semester, is open to all second year law students.

There are several reasons you should consider doing Stone. First, participation in and completion of the Stone competition is a prerequisite for participation on any intramural team funded by BU Law (aside from the Vis and the Jessup, which have other additional requirements).

Second, the top Stone participants will be invited to participate in the Homer Albers Prize Moot Court Competition, which is both an honor and a chance to further hone your persuasive writing and oral advocacy skills.

Finally, both Stone and Albers offer a unique chance to receive feedback on your writing and oral advocacy skills from more experienced students and to network with BU Law alumni.

Stone is as much work as you make it. Although the problems are more complex than the problems you tackled as a first year student in Esdaile, the brief-writing process is somewhat similar in terms of the number of total hours. You have three weeks to draft the brief, and you are sharing some of the work with another person. You will certainly be busy during the brief-writing period, and should plan accordingly. You may choose to practice as much (or frankly, as little!) as you wish for the oral advocacy component. You only argue once, so once you have been scheduled, you will know when you are going and can plan accordingly. Keep in mind that participating in Stone can still be a valuable experience, even if you are not able to devote quite as much time as you would like to the competition.

Albers is a larger time commitment than Stone. The brief-writing period is slightly longer than in Stone, and the issues are more complex. Additionally, every team will argue at least twice. Every team will also argue “off brief,” that is, the side opposite from that which they briefed. Some students find this more challenging and thus, find that they need more time to prepare. At a minimum, the competition will span from the end of January through the middle of March.

The two teams that make the finals will end up arguing five times; for them, the competition will span from the end of January through the middle of April.

If you have concerns about the time commitment for the 2L moot court competitions, you can talk to Jen McCloskey, the Executive Director of Advocacy and Legal Skills Programs. Her office is in Room 1005B, and she can be reached at jataylor@bu.edu. You should also feel free to reach out to any of the current Moot Court Directors or team members listed here. You can find their email addresses in the BU Directory.

BU Law’s moot court boards and annual intramural teams are chosen each spring. Interested 2Ls who have completed the Stone competition may apply to be on almost any team or board (Albers directorships and the National Moot Court team are limited to Albers participants). Preference is given to Albers participants, and among those, to the participants who advanced furthest in the competition.

The intramural teams listed on the application form are the moot court competitions that BU Law has participated in recently, but the list is non-exhaustive. These competitions often focus on broad constitutional questions and we know from experience that they are well-run, with interesting problems. As such, they attract strong competitors form other schools and are generally well-regarded in the legal community.

There are, however, dozens of moot court competitions, on almost every legal topic imaginable! Although the program has a limited budget, we aim to provide every interested student the opportunity to compete in moot court. As such, the program funds additional competitions as our budget permits, and students can use a wild card spot on the application to express interest in those competitions.

Completion of the Edward C. Stone Moot Court Competition is still a prerequisite for participation in any intramural moot court competition.

The Advocacy Programs provide both administrative support and funding to all of BU Law’s intramural moot court teams. The program will register the team and pay the registration fee. Our program coordinator works with the team to schedule the team’s travel and accommodations. Generally, the program is able to pay directly for registration fees and travel. Team members typically must pay for their hotels and incidental expenses up front, including food, and get reimbursed following the competition. The program coordinator works closely with each team.

BU Law’s internal moot court competitions (Stone and Albers) are run by student directors. Directors are third year students, selected at the end of their second year through an application process. Directors draft the moot court problems and bench memos (with supervision through the Advocacy Programs). They also schedule and run the oral arguments for each program. Directors receive three academic credits for their work, and can satisfy the school’s upper class writing requirement via the bench memo.

Head to our Vis or Jessup competition pages!

Any JD student! These ABA-run competitions are open to all JD students. The Negotiation and Client Counseling competitions are, however, typically limited in size, so applicants from each class are sometimes selected via lottery.

Both competitions offer students a chance to exercise important client-focused skills. Neither competition requires a written component, which means that participating in the intramural competition requires of a time commitment than other competitions. Students should still be prepared to work hard, however: The top two teams from each competition get to travel to the ABA Regional Round (and have a chance to move on from there to the National or even International rounds!).

The Negotiation and Client Counseling competitions are also fun! Students get to work in teams to solve realistic legal problems in a tight time frame. The local attorneys who judge the rounds typically provide great feedback to the students, and you will have a chance to network with them.

Generally, any JD student. Competitions are selected and coached by our student mock trial board. Mock trial also has plenty of opportunities for 1L students to participate. Reach out to the mock trial board for more information.