The finale of this year’s Jenkins Moot Court Competition took place this evening, in the spectacular ceremonial courtroom of the Federal Courthouse.

Each of the four competitors who advanced from the semifinals, Alyssa Dowse and Timothy Sheehey, and Jessica Farley and Brent Simerson, gave a terrific performance.  The panel of judges (Judge Lynn S. Adelman presiding in his own courtroom; Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience D. Roggensack; and North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge and Marquette alum James Wynn Jr.) was active in its questioning of both teams, but the advocates stood their ground at every turn.  I would have had a very difficult time ranking the competitors, were I on that panel.

After the arguments were complete and the scores were calculated, the winners were the Petitioners, Alyssa Dowse and Timothy Sheehey.  At the reception afterwards, in addition to recognizing the first- and second-place teams, Dean Kearney announced the other two prizes in the competition.  This year’s Ramon A. Klitzke Prize for Best Oral Advocate went to Alyssa Dowse.  Finally, the Franz Eschweiler Award for Best Brief was shared by teammates Joseph Brydges and Timothy Hassel.

Congratulations to the first-place and second-place teams, the Best Oral Advocate, and the team that wrote the Best Brief.  Indeed, congratulations to all of the students who had the honor of participating in Jenkins. And many thanks to the moot court board and executive board members and the faculty, staff, and alumni of the law school who helped with the competition.  As the Dean noted at the reception, it was especially gratifying to see so many alums of the moot court program at the argument this evening.

I appreciate being invited to be the featured alum blogger for April.  This being my first blog experience, I am going to ease in with an answer to the question of the month:  What was your most useful or enjoyable extracurricular activity in law school?

Since I married a classmate following graduation, I don’t need to tell you how useful or enjoyable that was, except to report that I am still very happily married to Mark, also a member of the Class of 1978.

I have very fond memories of the potluck dinners shared by the women students of my class.  We weren’t a huge number — 28 of the 130 graduating students.  Remarkably, most of us would attend these ad hoc affairs every other month or so.  Mothers would bring their babies.  It allowed us to develop a bond that was pretty unique.  Besides the wine and food, we shared outlines (I understand good outlines are still a hot commodity), strategies, complaints, fears, and hopes.  It was, in fact, an informal collaboration that worked very well for me and I suspect many others as we struggled through those three tough years.

While women are no longer such a small group, I imagine these sorts of gatherings still occur among all the students in some manner.  It was for me an enjoyable, healthy way to deal with the anxiety and stress of the law school experience.  And at that time, with one-third of the first year students not making it to the second year, it was indeed stressful — perhaps more about that era of the law school later.

The semifinal round of this spring’s Jenkins Moot Court Competition took place last night.   As previously described, sixteen top students from the Appellate Writing and Advocacy Class were invited to compete  in the Jenkins Competition, in teams of two.  Last week, that field of eight teams was narrowed to four.  Last night’s arguments narrowed the competition to the final two teams.  The finalists are Alyssa Dowse and Timothy Sheehey, arguing against Jessica Farley and Brent Simerson.

Congratulations and good luck to the finalists.  The final argument will take place at the Milwaukee Federal Courthouse at 6 p.m. this Thursday, April 2.  Join us to see two terrific oral arguments, and the exciting outcome of the year’s competition.  More information about the competition and the schedule of the events on Thursday, including the argument and the reception afterwards, can be found here.