Moot Court Club

What Is Moot Court?

Moot Court, a traditional law school activity now growing in the undergraduate arena, prepares you for the rigors of arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Moot Court is an outstanding opportunity to experience the practice of constitutional law firsthand. We are building a program that provides not only good instruction and training for you in your future endeavors, but also to create a program that is competitive nationally. While the program has been in existence only since 2017, our students’ performance at past tournaments demonstrates we are well on our way to achieving that national standing.

How Does Moot Court Work?

Moot Court is an academic competition in which you engage in legal/appellate advocacy before a fictional U.S. Supreme Court. Each team consists of two SFSU students who argue one constitutional issue apiece. In 2024, the American Moot Court Association (AMCA) “case problem” consisted of a fact-pattern involving the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. You prepare “argument outlines” during the competition, which include detailed legal analysis on these constitutional issues.

During the competition, you’ll present your oral argument to a panel of judges who evaluate your performance, both on legal substance and oratorical skill. You must present arguments at least three times, and must argue both sides of the case during the preliminary rounds of the tournament.

For Moot Court contact information, please email Professor Nick Conway at nickconway@sfsu.edu.

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Team Highlights

In spring 2024, SFSU’s Jackson Kelly and Rebecca Bergmanis won the California Classic Invitational, hosted by California State University, Long Beach.

In 2023, SFSU’s Olivia Clarke and Mayuu Kashimura won the Brief Writing National Championship on behalf of the respondent.

In fall 2023, the teams of Kira Hammons and Lucien Tomlinson and Pearl Corbett and Rebecca Bergmanis qualified for the next stage of competition at the AMCA Super Regional, held at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law.

In January 2022, SFSU returned to the national competition with the team of Sophia Benzoni and Pearl Corbett, who successfully advanced to the out-rounds.

In the 2021 – 2022 season, more than three-quarters of our teams advanced to elimination rounds at their respective regional competition (the highest percentage in SFSU history). Six students finished in the top 20 orators at their respective regionals (Pearl Corbett, Ernest Pacheco, Sophia Benzoni, Kaitlyn Elam, Jacob Grilley and Josh Mamalyga).

AMCA Western Regional: Nov. 6 – 7, 2020: The hybrid team of SFSU/UC Berkeley (Abigail Richards-Hatton of SFSU and Megan Cistulli of UC Berkeley) placed as the No. 1 (Cistulli) and No. 3 (Richards-Hatton) individual orators.

2020 National Tournament: The SFSU team (Owen Nelson and Aaron Gamez) placed in the top 32 teams in the country.

2019 AMCA: SFSU was the 2019 AMCA National Brief Writing Champion (Yana Gagloeva and Liam Sidebottom).

Colorado Christian University Invitational, October 2018: All three teams advanced to the Sweet 16. Two students (Owen Nelson and Yana Gagloeva) placed in the top 15 speakers out of 54 students.

Fresno State Scrimmage, September 2018: Two teams advanced to the semifinals. Owen Nelson and Abigail Richards advanced to the final round. Yana Gagloeva placed as the No. 1 orator, and Devon Montes placed as the No. 5 orator.