The final round was argued before Judges Bishop, Inbody, and Pirtle at the Nebraska Court of Appeals. After oral arguments, Judge Inbody remarked that he has judged the final round of the Grether Moot Court Competition for 18 years and is always impressed at how our students continue to raise the bar for excellence.
The rounds this year were very competitive due to the above-average participation of 18 teams. In light of this, simply making it to the final round was a tremendous accomplishment, and we congratulate our finalists, Kiersten Haugen and Sara Rips, whose impressive oral advocacy skills made this a close match. Though there was some initial division among the judges, they eventually chose Daniel Gutman as the best Oral Advocate, citing his passionate and emotionally evocative style in addition to his solid understanding of the law as the reasons for honoring him with this award.
Thank you to all our participants for making this event a success, and a special thank-you to our problem writer, Jordan Holst, as well as our faculty sponsor, Professor Kevin Ruser, the master of setting students up for success and taking none of the credit for himself. We also thank Dean Brummond and Dean Pearce for giving of their time to come and support the participants and the Moot Court program.
We hope to see all of you at the Allen Moot Court Competition this spring!