The Eyes of the Law: A Star-Studded Bench for the Columbia Moot Court Finals
(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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Comments
Stop "the Elect" bullshit.
Hogan? Was there Moot Court nepotism?
Seriously, though, congrats.
woohoo
Anyone know whether the problem was written before Robert's agreed to come? (Makes it kind of lame if the problem was written specifically for him, as he argued both of the conflicting cases for one issue)
GW Law's 2007 moot court finals panel:
Samuel Alito
Diane Wood
Jose Cabranes
GW Law's 2006 moot court finals panel:
John Roberts
Guido Calabresi
Sonia Sotomayor
The ivies aren't the only schools that can can pull this off.
3:04
It doesn't count when the guy can just swing by on his way home.
Also so is Hogan related to the Hogan in Hogan & Hartson?
Fordham pulled Nino in '99.
Wake Forest had Chief Justice Roberts judge moot court comp. in 2005.
GW! Woot!
Lat what is up with your Jordin Sparks obsession? Seriously. How old are you.
Congrats to Columbia!
I believe GW Law had Roberts in '06 and Alito in '07.
Even Tier 4 schools get SCOTUS judges, Mississippi College had Scalia judge their moot court last year.
http://law.mc.edu/news/scalia.htm
This post makes me miss A3G. ATL is good, but I enjoyed reading about the judiciary and hearing about the various goings on of "the Elect" more than I enjoy reading about firm mergers and salaries and whatnot.
Lat: Any chance you could bring back A3G as a "special guest correspondent" every now and then? Or maybe just bring back the pink background for a day for old times' sake? I'm sure I and other A3G fans would love to hear what she's been up to.
Columbia had Scalia for the moot court finals 2 years ago as well.
Also, it's been about a year since it was announced Roberts would be coming, and the problem was created over the summer / early fall semester.
Uh, to the commenters on GW having SCOTUS judges, if you cannot adduce why that is not surprising and fairly meaningless as to prestige, you're TTT.
Although it was known CJ Roberts was coming before the problem was written, that was not a factor in writing the problem.
CJ Roberts also judged the Washington University in STL moot court a year ago.
Villanova had Alito this year for their moot court competition.
This clearly proves Columbia's superiority over NYU.
Only 55 competitors? That is weak. UVA had 200 competing in it's competition.
Also, Lat - you are such a prestige obsessed non-journalist.
55 competitors -- maybe the article meant 55 teams of 2, in which case it'd be 110.
That's about what Michigan typically has.
Also, 3:41 pm needs to learn the difference b/n "it's" and "its"
Who knew Roberts was so small?
fordham had scalia actually COMPETE in their moot court competition. top that
UPenn State's Carlisle campus had Alito, Thomas, and Roberts this year. It's Philly campus, however, could get only Scalia.
CLS is a joke.
HLS to 190.
Judge Motz is "assuredly attractive"? She's ancient. Get a life, Lat.
CJ Roberts will judge the Moot Court finals at Kansas in late April.
I'm not impressed. Hofstra has had Paula Abdul for 3 years running.
Signed by: Hof1L
Mr. Hogan should know that Roberts is the Chief Justice of the United States, not the "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." Rehnquist was a stickler about that....
Lat - you forgot to comment on how Hogan is "very handsome" or whatever it is that you say about any male lawyer or law student that has all of his teeth and can put a tie on straight....
@3:27 - Tier 4 schools get Tier 4 Justices. I am not suprised.
4:46,
You are right, because liberal is teh good and conservative is teh bad.
You are an embarrassment - grow up.
Liberals love bananas.
I wonder if the winner of this competition attached to his brief the same kind of attachment that sometimes appears on the backs of Florida trucks . . . .
Hogan was fantastic if you were there - looked like he didn't even have any notes either.
4:46 here, hey 4:50, what are you doing fighting on the interwebs? Why don't you go back to your $15/hr doc review job for that car accident ID mill in Neverheardofit, TX. Leave the lawyering and commenting on blawgs to the big boys.
4:46
5:19/4:46:
I'm sorry your paper "Why the Soviet Union was Humane and Just, Why Castro is awesome, and why the American Flag Should be Burned and Defacated On" was not accepted for publication in the law review of TTT Law School.
Please accept our apologies for your bottom of the class rank as well. Enjoy your new job at McDonalds.
What's with all this "ripped from the headlines" tomfoolery? One reason YLS doesn't get (or maybe doesn't seek?) Justices is because their moot court, unlike most schools, use real pending Supreme Court cases. (If other schools use real cases, I stand corrected.)
5:42,
I'm actually staring at a desk full of private equity work, that being what I do. When I tilt my head slightly to the left, I see instead the Hudson river (and the glory that is New Jersey, on its other bank).
That aside, did you actually say "leave commenting on blawgs to the big boys"? Are you joking?
4:50
P.S. They have some very good lawyers in TX. You wouldn't know it - that's probably fly-over country to you.
5:42, my sincerest apologies. That comment was of course directed not to you, but to 5:19/4:46.
4:46
Rumor is a SCOTUS Justice in 2009 for GW. Some have suggested it may be Thomas, who has a GW-grad clerk next term.
Which poses the question: what kind of Moot Court competition has a cold bench?
CJ Roberts will be judging Florida's Moot Court competition this fall.
Why no photo coverage of HLS Ames final this past fall? We had a former Miss Idaho arguing (and Scalia, Lucero (10th), Livingston (2d) judging).
Duke had Alito and Cabranes this year.
I wonder how Columbia pulled that, being on the academic downturn for a while.
why are there so many gw posts? we get it, you live for atl. now get a real job
I have Wood for Civ Pro II this quarter (one of many reasons I love Chicago). I agree she is insanely intelligent, but she is far from scary. She has a gentle touch.
It might also be noteworthy that the Chief judged the final round of Pepperdine Law School's annual intraschool appellate advocacy tournament this year on February 2, 2008. Apparently ATL only notices these things from top ten schools.
Very cool. I'm jealous.
-NYU'er
Pepperdine has unreal moot court judges, including Roberts. In fact, Pepperdine gets more SCOTUS justices to do things than any other school I know, probably because of (almost certainly because of) their dean. Scalia just taught a course, as did Roberts and Alito. Scholars and huge litigators too, Amar coming to mind as well as Lanier.
6:32: it would be a bit lame to put up a post about Ames when one of the judges is a CLS professor (Livingston 2nd Cir.)
Lat, you are ridiculous. Despite posting all sorts of ridiculous "justice sightings" at Georgetown and CLS here, you have been e-mailed on countless times (and it has appeared in the comments here) about the SCOTUS appearances at GW. And for the "oh, you're in Washington" argument, it's been much more frequent than Georgetown, and we had Roberts come judge our moot court finals the winter after being elevated to the Supreme Court. Why no love for the G-Dub?
In addition to the illustrious list of Judge Wood's accomplishments and positons, I would like to add that she is currently the professor of my Civil Procedure II class at the University of Chicago.
She knows everything. It is kind of scary. But she's very nice, too.
This is impressive and all, and not to rain on CLS's parade, but the Chief Justice presided over the Wash U moot court finals over a year ago
Is Hogan blind, or just a dorky looking dude?
he is neither from my experience. congrats to chris, he really was excellent.
George Washington University has had a supreme court justice for two of the last three years - its not that hard to get them if you're a great school and in DC :-)
Emory had Senior Judge Wallace Tashima (Ninth), Judge Jane R. Roth (Third) and Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey (Sixth) for the finals when we competed there last fall.
CLS usually has a Supreme Court Justice on its moot court panel. When I was there they had Scalia one year and Ginsburg the next.
Wash U in STL had CJ Roberts, 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Karen Nelson Moore and 2 federal district court judges 2 years ago.
Oh and Professor Lazarus from Gtown (Wash U)
Scalia is confirmed to preside over GW's moot court competition in January 2009.