Georgia Law wins annual Georgia/Florida moot court competition

Abstract

Georgia Law wins annual Georgia/Florida moot court competition

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Writer: Courtney Brown, 706/542-5172, lawprstu@uga.edu Contact: Kellie Casey, 706/542-2739, krcasey@uga.edu

UGA beats Florida at Hulsey/Gambrell Moot Court Competition

Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia School of Law recently defeated the University of Florida in the annual Florida/Georgia-Hulsey/Gambrell Moot Court Competition in Jacksonville.

This long-running tournament is traditionally held the Friday before the Georgia-Florida football game. Two law students from each school compete as lawyers in a mock appellate case, and the victors earn the right to keep the championship trophy at their law school for the year.

Second-year students Aaron D. Parks of Lilburn, Georgia, and E. Keith Hall of Memphis, Tenneessee, represented Georgia Law and secured the win.

This year’s case, William Hanson v. United States, focused on federal constitutional law pertaining to an unresolved case where the defendant was charged with selling a sexually graphic T-shirt. Students argued issues such as whether the defendant was fit to stand trial and how to determine the standard for Internet obscenity.

The panel of participating federal judges in this year’s competition were: District Court Judge for the Southern District of Georgia B. Avant Edenfield, District Court Senior Judge for the Middle District of Florida W. Terrell Hodges, District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida Marcia Morales Howard, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat and District Court Chief Judge for the Southern District of Georgia Lisa Godbey Wood.

“This competition is both a fun tradition and an intense rivalry,” Georgia Law Director of Advocacy Kellie Casey said. “It is rewarding to see our students’ hard work and preparation payoff. Plus, it is always terrific to come away with a victory against Florida.”

This annual competition started more than 30 years ago when Mark Hulsey, a partner with the Jacksonville law firm Smith Hulsey & Busey and a UF graduate, and Charlie Kimbrell, a lawyer practicing in Miami who was a UGA graduate, agreed to co-sponsor the event. When both original founders passed away, the firms of Smith Hulsey & Busey and Smith, Gambrell & Russell – which has offices in Atlanta and Jacksonville – decided to continue to support the tournament, which is now called the Florida/Georgia-Hulsey/Gambrell Moot Court Competition.

UGA School of Law Consistently regarded as one of the nation's top public law schools, the UGA School of Law was established in 1859. With an accomplished faculty, which includes authors of some of the country's leading legal scholarship, Georgia Law offers three degrees – the Juris Doctor, the Master of Laws and the Master in the Study of Law – and is home to the renowned Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy. Its advocacy program is counted among the nation’s best, winning four national championships in 2013-14 alone. Georgia Law counts six U.S. Supreme Court judicial clerks in the past nine years among its distinguished alumni body of approximately 10,000. For more information, see www.law.uga.edu.

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