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The Eyes of the Law: A Star-Studded Bench for the Columbia Moot Court Finals

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:38 PM - By David Lat

Chris Hogan Christopher Hogan Chief Justice John Roberts Above the Law blog.jpg(At right: Chief Justice John Roberts and Christopher M. Hogan, CLS 2008, and winner of the Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court competition. Chris Hogan appeared in the finals alongside Mollie Kornreich, David Scherr, and Jordan Connors. ATL congratulates all four on a job well done!)

For many years, Harvard Law School had a virtual monopoly on Supreme Court justices judging law school moot court finals. One of the nine robed ones would happily make himself or herself available every time the Ames Moot Court Finals were held up in Cambridge. Other law schools, even highly ranked ones, had a much tougher time scoring SCOTUS members. [FN1]

In the past few years, however, Columbia Law School has managed to wrangle judicial celebrities of the highest order for its Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court finals. For last year’s competition, which we covered extensively, the panel consisted of Justice Samuel A. Alito, Judge Susan P. Graber, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

This year, CLS outdid itself. Not content with a mere Associate Justice, they went for the Chief himself. From Adam Liptak’s “Sidebar” column, in today’s New York Times:

For three days last week, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. heard arguments in a real court in Washington. Then he came to New York to preside over a fake one — the finals of the moot court competition at Columbia Law School. Though he looked a little weary, Chief Justice Roberts’s questions were deft, and his wit was dry.

We like Liptak’s description of moot court:

Moot court is a funny institution, part debate club and part “American Idol.” Students are assigned a case, often loosely based on a real one, and they pretend to be appellate lawyers, writing briefs and making arguments. The best advocate wins.

The four students who presented arguments on Thursday had been winnowed from a field of 55. After they made their pitches, Chief Justice Roberts and the three stars of the appellate bench who sat with him gave brief critiques and then selected a winner.

“I particularly liked your rebuttal, Mollie,” said Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. “Jordan, I liked the way you started your argument.”

That’s “Jordan” with an “a,” as in Jordan Connors — not to be confused with reigning American Idol Jordin Sparks (one of the best Idols ever; but in vocal jeopardy, so please pray for her).

Chief Justice Roberts and Judge Motz — a Supreme Court short-lister in a Democratic administration, and described as “assuredly attractive” — were joined by two other high-powered jurists: Judge Michael McConnell (10th CIr.), characterized as a “deserving longshot” for the Supreme Court, and Judge Diane Wood (7th Cir.), known for being “wicked smart…. In short, she is a liberal version of Nino; and that’s what makes her so freakin’ scary…”

Both Judge McConnell and Judge Wood have been mentioned as possible Supreme Court nominees (in Republican and Democratic administrations, respectively). With the exception of Judge Motz, the panel was composed entirely of members of the Elect. A more luminous moot court bench would be difficult to compile.

(A digression on Judge Wood. If offered a Supreme Court spot, she obviously wouldn’t turn it down. But we hear that she’s not one of those types who has lived her entire life pining and planning for One First Street. She enjoys her life in Chicago, where she’s a beloved (and highly esteemed) member of the legal community. She plays the oboe and English horn in the Chicago Bar Association symphony orchestra. She and her husband, a successful doctor, have a rather large house out in the suburbs, as well as a swanky apartment downtown. Her life is complete without being a SCOTUS justice.)

Oh sorry, we were talking about the CLS moot court! We lost ourselves for a moment there.

Additional discussion, after the jump.

For detailed accounts of the substance of the argument and the justices’ remarks afterward, we refer you to the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Columbia Law School website. They’re all well worth reading, especially if you’re interested in appellate advocacy.

We’d like to turn our coverage in a more personal direction. What was it like to argue before this intimidating bench? Chris Hogan, the competition winner, posted a link to the CLS write-up on Facebook [FN2], with this commentary:

I have a policy of not posting stuff on facebook about accomplishments, but I am going to break it just this once, and only because it was always my nerdy law student dream to meet the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I was able to do this last night at the Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court, which I also won (woo hoo!). It was really fun, though I wonder if I peaked at age 23, and its all down hill from here, haha.

My favorite photo is where I am arguing [click here, first photo]. Not only do I look like some kind of blowfish in this law school action-shot, but you can see [my wife] Anastasia (bored) and [my sister] Lindsay (angry) right behind me.

We contacted Chris Hogan to see if he had additional thoughts on the experience. He kindly obliged:

Chief Justice Roberts looks just like all of his photos, which was unexpected — all of the other Justices I have seen look nothing like their casebook photos (which are usually from the 1980s). I was quite nervous before the argument, but once up there at the podium, that goes away immediately. At that point, you are too busy to be nervous. My case also had a circuit split problem (like most moot court events), and - go figure - the one judge who opposed my side was Judge [Jerry] Smith [of the Fifth Circuit], my future employer.

Finally, a couple of people have joked with me that maybe Chief Justice Roberts’ previous employment at Hogan & Hartson had something to do with the win. While that would be really cool (I’ve always wanted to be part of a vast conspiracy), it’s unfortunately not true. Maybe that can be John Grisham’s next book, haha.

We’re confident that Chris’s victory was well-deserved, despite the valiant efforts of his co-finalists. How could a judging panel that brilliant — and that ideologically balanced (two liberals, two conservatives) — be wrong?

Once again, congratulations to Chris Hogan, Mollie Kornreich, David Scherr, and Jordan Connors. We wish we could have been there to witness this splendid oral argument.

[FN1] When we appeared in the moot court finals at Yale, we argued before Judge John M. Walker Jr. (2d Cir), Judge Theodore A. McKee (3d Cir.), and Judge Howard Levine, of the New York Court of Appeals. A perfectly respectable bench, but no SCOTUS justices.

[FN2] Facebook powers-that-be: Please don’t ban us again for our using a photograph and commentary from Chris Hogan’s profile. We’ve obtained his permission to republish this material on ATL. Thanks.

Appellate Argument: An Artist’s View [New York Times]
Chief Justice Roberts presides at Columbia moot court [AP]
Hogan ‘08 Wins Best Orator at Stone Finals [Columbia Law School]

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