Harvard sweeps regionals in Jessup Moot Court Competition for seventh year in a row
Adina Levine
Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: News
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"I'm really proud of the hard work and effort that the team put in," said Hugo Torres, 3L and Team Captain. "Harvard has won the regional competition for seven years running now-Brandon, Rachel, Marc, and Erica all continued this fine tradition by performing brilliantly over the weekend. We are looking forward to going to D.C. for the international rounds and giving it our best shot!"
The five member team, lead by Captain Hugo Torres, Oralists Brandon Miller, 1L, Marc Jacob, LLM, Rachel Rebouche, 2L, and researcher Erica Gaston, 1L, faced New England School of Law, Suffolk, Boston College, and Syracuse in the qualifying rounds. In the semi-finals, the team faced off against Vermont, and for the finals they confronted Boston College.
"Mooting undoubtedly improves one's capacity for presenting complex arguments as simple self-evident truisms, often involving serious persuasive efforts in the light of highly unfavorable facts," commented Marc Jacob, LLM, one of the Team's Oralists. "The goal is to let the judges hear an interesting and well-told tale that invites only one conclusion, which - surprise! - happens to be one's own. While it certainly never hurts to try to finish the brief before 2 a.m. the night before it is due, working under deadlines is also something that quickly loses much of its dread."
In addition to winning the tournament, Torres, who has been doing the Jessup Moot Court competition for three years, secured the award for best oralist. Brandon Miller was awarded 7th best oralist.
"Hugo Torres strikes fear into the hearts of the judges and competitors alike," Gaston asserted. "My bets are on him for top oralist at the international competition."
"It's been a tremendously enjoyable experience so far," commented Jacob. "Working together with a team of first-rate individuals and a captain as dedicated as Hugo is, I was confident the only thing that could go wrong was that we got too late to the competition - which almost happened, mind you!"
The Jessup competition, as the world's largest international law Moot Court, is broken down into national and international stages. In the United States, schools compete within their region in order to decide who gets to represent a certain region at the final international round, which will take place in Washington DC.