“Howard went on to take first place in the competition, beating out 18 other schools, including two-time reigning champion Harvard University, Stanford University, this year’s finalist Brooklyn Law School, as well as semi-finalist American University Washington College of Law.”
After three days of impressive battle, the Howard University School of Law Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Moot Court Team emerged victorious as the winner of the 2005 National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. The victory is significant in that when Howard Law took first place in Chicago on April 2, 2005, another historic diversity milestone was set. Howard Law became the first historically black college to claim the ranking of number one moot court team in the nation.
Sponsored by the American Bar Association and John Marshall Law School, the prestigious annual competition is an invitation-only tournament. Months before the event, Howard’s team submitted a “declaration of interest;” asking to be considered as first-time participants, based on the team’s very strong record, an invite was extended. Still, Howard was not predicted to come out on top and many considered the team an underdog.
In what proved to be a bit of an upset, Howard went on to take first place in the competition, beating out 18 other schools, including two-time reigning champion Harvard University, Stanford University, this year’s finalist Brooklyn Law School, as well as semi-finalist American University Washington College of Law. Competing for Howard in Chicago were Adonna Bannister, Nisha Brooks, L. Chris Stewart, and Derrick T. Simmons, at the time all third-year law students.
Just a few days after graduating in early May, team member L. Chris Stewart took a quick break from the bar classes he’d just begun in Georgia to savor the historic win in a phone interview, “As Howard advanced through the tournament, the judges had to spell out H-O-W-A-R-D to distinguish us from Harvard, whom everyone assumed would most likely win. At the end of the competition, we held our breath as we waited for the results. It was amazing. We couldn’t believe we had won the national tournament.”
“Of course we knew we had a strong team, and we were confident that we would represent Howard well,” says Stewart. “We felt good about our strengths and this helped us in each round as we went up against big-name schools. The fact that Howard ranks as a third-tier law school [by US News & World Report], and that we were the only minority team didn’t intimidate us. It was an absolute thrill to win.”
“Our placing first proves that if you’re willing to make the effort and put in all the hard work, you will excel,” adds team member Nisha Brooks via phone from Las Vegas, Nevada, where she is set to begin a two-year clerkship for a federal judge. “You don’t have to be on the Harvard team to win.”
According to Brooks and Stewart, both Professor Monique Pressley, the team’s coach, and this year’s championship team captain Errick D. Simmons (team member Derrick’s twin brother) deserve much of the credit for Howard’s moot court success.
Prior to competition, Pressley and Simmons together strove to create an authentic litigation experience. After class, team members remained in the law school preparing for trial, many nights until three a.m. Attorneys from the field were brought in to scrimmage against the team members and judge their competitive skills.
“For the past two summers, I worked for a litigation firm in Florida, and the way we prepared for our trial there was no different than how our team prepared for moot court trials,” says Stewart. “So, under our coach and team captain’s guidance it was the real world, and it showed in our tournaments.”
Stewart received the “Outstanding Advocate Award.” In other words, he was the tournament’s M.V.P., and holds the distinction of out-scoring all of the other students to receive the most points awarded by the judges throughout the competition.
Howard Law maintains a tradition of turning out good trial attorneys, consequently the university tends to support and push its trial team. A spot on the 20-member team is coveted. Typically, 60 to 70 students try out each year. After members are selected, there is an intra-team competition in the fall to decide who will compete in the spring.
In addition to winning in Chicago, Howard’s Moot Court Trial Team participated in the Atlanta Association of Trial Lawyers of America, where it placed first in the region, beating Catholic, American, and Georgetown universities.
Nonetheless, the recent tournament win is the most prominent feather in the team’s collective cap to date.
Kurt Schmoke, dean of Howard University School of Law, proudly describes Howard’s victory over his alma mater, Harvard, and other schools as “just like the Mastercard advertisement: It was priceless.”
According to the clearly pleased Schmoke, symbolic victories are important. While Schmoke is acutely aware that great things are happening at Howard, a big win tangibly advertised the law school’s successes.
“Employers are ahead of the public in terms of their perception of Howard,” explains the dean. “We have had a substantial increase in the last three years of private employers recruiting on campus. I think that’s a sign of the Bar’s commitment to diversity.”
Schmoke is certain that the moot court victory will help to attract even more employers, as well as prospective students, to Howard in the future. And he welcomes their attention.
Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.
From the July/August 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®