W&M Moot Court Wins UNC - Chapel Hill Constitutional Law Competition
William & Mary Moot Court team members Tom Robertson '08, Dan Kruger '08, and Alex Brodsky '09 were awarded first place at the annual Craven Moot Court Competition held at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. The team competed Feb. 20 to Feb. 23 and walked away victorious against a Boston College Law School team after beating rivals South Texas Law School in the quarterfinals. The team came out on top of a field of twenty, with competitors coming from schools like University of Pennsylvania, Duke, and George Washington University.
Robertson, Kruger, and Brodsky argued in the finals before a prestigious panel of judges at the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The judges were Senior Judge Gilbert Merritt of the Sixth Circuit, Chief Justice Sarah Parker of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and Judge Terrence Boyle of the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The trio credited each other on the big win.
"Alex Brodsky delivered the best rebuttal that I have ever heard," Robertson said of his teammate. "And it was his first argument in his first Moot Court competition. Ever."
"Tom [Robertson]'s coffeehouse-style commentary didn't so much argue a point as simply set out the only reasonable result," replied Kruger.
Robertson singled out Lawrence Perrone '08, Moot Court Lead Tournament Justice, for helping the team to victory.
"Under Larry's stewardship, teams have been relieved of the heavy burdens of logistics," said Robertson, "and isolated W&M teams have been fused into a supportive community."
This year's UNC competition problem focused on the Second Amendment right to bear arms and whether a search of a car that discovered weapons had to be suppressed under the Fourth Amendment.