Law School Life
Moot Court Sweep
By Erik J Provitt
PT 3L, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School
[email protected]
F
irst, we are JDs or soon to be; secondly, we are
Georgians or something close to it. So needless to say,
the spirit of competition within each of us runs as deep
as the Port of Savannah. State-wide bragging rights are one
of the many perks of being a student or alumni of a Georgian
school. As lawyers or law students, we no longer have to
give up that competitive spirit! No, I am not talking about a
Georgia-Georgia State gridiron battle, nor a Mercer-Emory
match up on the hardwood. So if the host school doesn’t
have courts, stadiums, or diamonds; two of Georgia’s Law
Schools don’t have any form of sports, and a third could
hardly be seen as a haven of collegiate athletics, what in the
world could I be talking about? The Georgia Intrastate Moot
Court competition of course!
finals to face off against one another.
The Georgia Intrastate Moot Court Competition is a weekendlong competition sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of
the State Bar of Georgia. It is a competition with a rich history,
as two teams from each of Georgia’s six law schools, Atlanta’s
John Marshall Law School, Emory University, Georgia State
University, Mercer University, Savannah Law School, and the
University of Georgia compete in an Oral Arguments style
competition. This year, the annual competition was held at
Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, where The Georgia State
University School of Law earned the top prize. In fact, the
Downtown Atlanta Law School sent both of its teams to the
“This year,” said Coach Edgar Neely, “We cemented our
school as the force to be reckoned with, not just by winning
the competition and repeating our Best Brief performance,
but by sending both Georgia State Law teams to the final
round. There is a new sheriff in town at Intrastate. All Blue.
All In. All GSU Final.”
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association
Georgia State’s sweep of this year’s moot court competition
was an impressive feat. Team Member, Mary Emily Hearons,
a rising 3L said, “The best part about competing against
another GSU team in the finals was knowing that a GSU victory was inevitable.” “Hearing both teams’ names called was
completely surreal,” said fellow 3L teammate Alan Long. The
victory was the school’s first since 2005 and serves as a very
rewarding accomplishment for the GSU program. After the
nearly decade-long reign of the University of Georgia School
of Law and a victory by John Marshall in 2014, GSU wants
the sweep of this year’s competition to serve notice to the
other five Georgia