UVA 3Ls Threaten to Eat Their Young

I’ll admit, I did not participate in any kind of fake court moot court competitions during law school. It just wasn’t my thing. But for other students, moot court can be a really exciting way to pass the time while you are waiting for law school to stop charging you money. I totally respect that.
Unless people take it too seriously. When moot court turns into gunner heaven, it’s hard not to laugh at all the Lil’ Boies running around acting like the competition is more important than 1L torts.
But at UVA Law School, it looks like the people running the school’s William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition have taken things to an entirely new level of pettiness. A UVA 2L explains it this way:

[T]he Lile Moot Court competition is our intramural moot court that 240 2Ls are competing in. It is run by appx. 10 incredibly rude and power-hungry 3Ls … and they have been inconsiderate to say the least. It’s the talk of the campus, or at least of the 2Ls.

You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens when 3Ls don’t have secure firm jobs waiting for them upon graduation?
After the jump, the members of the UVA moot court board completely lose their ever lovin’ minds.


It’s one thing for 3Ls to be “rude and power hungry.” But the email UVA 2Ls received on Thursday morning is one of the most ridiculous things you’re likely to see in otherwise polite company. The Moot Court Board is now actively threatening 2Ls:

For those of you who have withdrawn or have been withdrawn by the Board, this is a reminder that you are required by the honor code to contact your employers regarding withdrawal. Given some concerns that have been raised regarding compliance, we are strongly considering doing spot checks by contacting employers to confirm that you have reported your withdrawal. Please be sure that you have already contacted them as we would hate to inform your employer for the first time.
William Minor Lile Moot Court Board

I’ve read that email a couple of times now and I’m still floored by the total suckitude of that message. I’m going to let a 2L who received the note weigh in while I collect myself:

That’s right – they have gleefully threatened to call the employers of students who withdrew from their precious competition, to make sure that they took it off their résumés. There was an uproar among the 2Ls, and many angry emails were sent back to the board.

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I have a few points and questions:
* How the hell did UVA Law not win the douche competition?
* This letter reeks of no-offered 3Ls who are trying to find an excuse for why their sterling résumés– replete with moot court credentials — didn’t make the cut.
* Do they really expect 2Ls to call up perhaps a double digit number of firms and say “hi, can I send a new résumé? My old one was correct at the time, but my circumstances have changed in a minor way, and now I’m afraid that jackasses I go to school with will use this to sabotage my application.” The horse is out of the barn and galloping away on this one.
* Where in God’s name does the Lile Moot Court Board get the idea to become the résumé police? Isn’t that the job of employers, not wanna-be employees?
* Did the Lile Moot Court Board think, for a second, about the consequences of looking like mean-spirited asshats in front of the entire UVA Law community (and beyond)?
Seriously guys, I know the job market is tough and competitive. But threatening your fellow students is just not the right way to go. People who put moot court on their résumés without actually participating in the competition will look really silly if an interviewer ever asks them a question about it. That is the “spot check.”
And if employers really can’t tell the difference between people who actually participated versus people who did not, then maybe the board should be more concerned with giving its participants a valuable experience that shows up beyond an entry on a résumé.
Lile Moot Court Board to Epic Fail.
Earlier: Douchiest Law School Contest

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