Upper-Class Programs

Writing Courses

BU Law’s upper-level advanced legal writing courses provide students with opportunities to sharpen the legal writing skills acquired in the first year. These courses are geared to specific subject matter or legal writing settings and are taught by instructors in small seminars which include substantial feedback to students on their written products.

Advocacy Competitions and Programs: Overview

BU Law students have the chance to tackle complex cases that demand thorough research and excellent oral and written presentations. You’ll have a variety of appellate advocacy opportunities to choose from, including intramural moot court, negotiation, client counseling, and mock trial competitions. Every year, teams of students represent BU Law at moot court and other competitions around the country. You can also choose to become a moot court board member. A broad overview of these programs is below. You can find more details about any of these programs here.

Second-Year Intramural Competitions

In addition to the J. Newton Esdaile Appellate Moot Court Program for first-year students, the Legal Writing and Appellate Advocacy Program administers two intramural upper-class competitions. In the Edward C. Stone Moot Court Competition, held each fall, second-year students compete in teams of two for a chance to advance to our honors competition. Each team briefs one side of a case and then argues that side at oral argument, judged by a panel of third-year students, faculty and attorneys. The top 32 students from the competition advance to the Homer Albers Prize Moot Court Competition in the spring. The Edward C. Stone Moot Court Competition is open to all second-year students and participation is a prerequisite for placement on any of BU Law’s official moot court teams.

The Homer Albers Prize Moot Court Competition takes place each spring. The invitees compete in teams of two through up to five rounds of competition. Each team briefs one side of the competition problem, but has an opportunity to argue each side at least once in the two preliminary rounds, which are judged by panels of attorneys. Eight teams advance and argue again before panels of BU Law faculty members. The teams that advance to the semi-final and final rounds argue before panels of judges. Recent semi-final panels have included judges from the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Rhode Island Supreme Court. Final round panels generally consist of judges of the United States Court of Appeals from around the country, most recently from the first, second, third, sixth, tenth and federal circuits.

Third-Year Moot Court Teams and Boards

Third-year students who participated in the Edward C. Stone Moot Court Competition are eligible to apply for a position on one of BU Law’s Intramural Moot Court Teams or Boards. BU Law enters teams in a variety of national and international competitions, supported by the Advocacy Program. The student Moot Court Boards draft the moot court problems for the Stone and Albers competitions, administer those competitions, and score the competitors in the second-year competitions.

Negotiation and Client Counseling

Each year, BU Law holds a Negotiation Competition in the fall and a Client Counseling competition in January. The top teams from each of these competitions represent BU Law at the ABA regional competitions, for a chance to advance again to the national and even international rounds.

Mock Trial

BU Law’ s Mock Trial Program runs skills workshops for students sends teams to various regional and national mock trial competitions.