Ames Moot Court Competition 1977

The case West Bay Point New Freedom Church Inc., Reverend William P. Connell, Susan Barns v. Jonathan Barns, Shaleen Barns was argued in November 1977 at the Ames Moot Court Competition. The presiding judges were Hon. Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court; Hon. J. Skelly Wright, U.S. Court of Appeals for The District of Columbia Circuit; Hon. Edward F. Hennessey, Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
The Ames Competition, held in the historic Ames Courtroom of Harvard Law School, is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing and advocacy in the country. The students participating in the Final Round started the competition in fall of their 2L year. Two teams progressed to the Final Round through their strong research abilities and excellent written and oral advocacy.

[@historyprofessor1985]

Always great to see Justice Thurgood Marshall in action!

[@elijahallison4347]

Thurgood Marshall!

[@parulsrivastava8642]

Kudos to the participants, that was intense!

[@Tywon05]

They should have made Thurgood Marshall chief justice

[@Subliminalmessage78]

He commanded like a chief for sure.❤

[@ZimbaZumba]

The winning oralist was 34 and an accomplished actress before coming to law school. She may have had an advantage.

[@Eclectic999]

The first participant is now an elected official in California, a former state senator.

[@DissentOrConcur]

What is there name?

[@reeceaguilar8374]

@@DissentOrConcur Sheila Kuehl

[@clyvelawrence8820]

This is really interesting

[@jacobzaranyika9334]

I will watch this later. I have saved it.

[@johndanielson3777]

God bless Thurgood Marshall

[@terencewinters2154]

Marshall was a leading oralist himself being the foremost civil rights attorney of his day before being elevated to the high court . Shapiro and seigel became leading trial attorneys. But maybe it's a a moot point now. Nearly 50 years later. But after being selected to the law review of a prestigious law school moot court representation is a nice resume builder. Family law case a traditional state law exclusive domain . But complicated by issues of religious liberties and the right of an 18 year old to be treated as an independent adult having reached the age of majority.

[@money5434]

I wish we had something similar in the UK.

[@vadrey]

There is lol
Check: mooting competition UK

[@money5434]

@@vadrey Not at this level lol. It was a sarcastic comment. I know about UK mooting. Used to take part in it. But the difference is clear.

[@vadrey]

@@money5434 sorry but i view UK mooting way ahead and much... "proper" than the US counterpart.
That's just my view, i'd like to find the reasons behind your view if that's possible 🙂
I'm part of UK moots also

[@money5434]

In very short, while we do have mooting competitions in the UK, they are not anywhere near the level of the Ames mooting competitions. The Ames competitors are trained liberal artists; masters of logic and language arts. Hence, their arguments are powerfully convincing; whereas in the UK, the students are told merely to Google arguments “for and against a given proposition” which they then practice zillions of times before parroting before the self-appointed school-lecturer of a judge. Therefore, this is not so much a mooting competition as it is a memorisation competition: and mere memorisation is not critical thinking. While these critical thinking skills may be demonstrated at the universities like Oxford and Cambridge, the lower ranking universities have long abandoned their liberal arts traditions. Lord Jonathan Sumption has also agreed with this argument.

[@davyroger3773]

Ive been watching too many of these to count and the gentleman at 24:19 is one of the best orators i've seen on any of them

[@popcornpretzel6720]

21:48