It was a banner year for the Law School’s moot court competitors, as one team brought home a championship trophy, multiple teams made deep runs in national tournaments, and several students earned impressive individual honors.
“For our external competitions against other schools, we had to have tryouts this year because we had a record number of applicants,” said Professor Lane McFadden, who teaches Legal Writing and Research and Appellate Advocacy and supervises the Law School’s appellate moot court programs. “The rising 2Ls are now excited because the students who are only a year or two ahead of them have done it and have enjoyed some success, which has elevated the visibility of our program.”
Maurer students saw great success at oral argument competitions this year. The team honors were led by 2025 graduates Annie Hoodecheck and Emma Leonard, who brought home the title in the Anderson Center Seventh Circuit Moot Court Competition, held at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago in March.
“That was exciting to win,” McFadden said. “To see Anne and Emma do so well was remarkable, but additionally, after the competition I started getting emails from the school that administers the competition and attorneys who judged it praising our students not just for their ability, but for how personable and great they were to be around. That makes us even more proud.”
In Oklahoma City, fellow Class of 2025 grads Allyson McBride and Adam Rosenthall made it to the final rounds of regionals at the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. The duo lost a close 2-1 decision that would’ve made them the first Maurer team in many years to make it to the National Championship. A second team at the competition, comprised of Allison McDevitt and Alivia Benedict, advanced to the semifinal rounds.
And Joy Atadoga, competing in the ABA’s First Amendment and Media Law competition with an assigned partner from the University of Mississippi, argued in the final round before a panel of federal and state judges at the ABA’s annual Media Law chapter conference.
Other Maurer students received individual recognition in competition this year. Justice Jama was the top oralist at Elon Law School’s Billings Exum Frye Moot Court Competition, and Allyson McBride was a top oralist at the ABA’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Aaron Hendryx and Emma Massa were both recognized as top oralists at the National Health Law Moot Competition last October.
But while oral argument is the visible part of a moot court competition, writing is also a significant component. Most competitions disallow any faculty involvement during the writing process to ensure the work is entirely that of the students.
And our students excelled, winning brief-writing recognition at five different competitions in the 2024-25 academic year. Atadoga’s team won the honors at the First Amendment and Media Law Diversity competition, while Hoodecheck and Leonard earned Best Appellee Brief honors at the Seventh Circuit Moot Court Competition. It was the second year in a row a Maurer team took home best briefing honors at that event.
“For me personally, Annie and Emma were both in my LRW class when they were 1Ls, so to see them win a writing award was a major highlight,” McFadden said.
The Class of 2025 wasn’t the only one earning accolades.
Rising 3Ls Rishav Aikat, Carissa Margraf, and Noor Qureshi were recognized with Memorial-Writing Honors at the Jessup International Law Moot Court U.S. Regional Competition in Portland.
“The Jessup team’s writing award is particularly impressive, because not only is this a difficult international law problem, but this is the only competition where students write both briefs instead of a brief for just one side,” McFadden said. Maurer teams have been recognized for their writing in three consecutive Jessup competitions.
Aaron Hendryx and Emma Massa won brief-writing honors at the National Health Law Moot Court Competition, and Victoria Bichutskaya and Maggie McComas earned brief writing honors at the Tulane Mardi Gras Invitational Sports Law Moot Court Competition in February.
For McFadden, the students’ successes are a clear sign that Maurer is a top producer of competitors and future advocates.
“These kinds of competitions really do cater to a very specific presentation style that not everyone has,” he said, “so it takes a real confidence, a real assured public speaker to do this well. Part of the trick of finding great advocacy competitors is that the most confident public speakers aren’t always the strongest writers, and vice versa. The best competitors are good at both. And these students are good at both.”
The full list of 2024-25 advocacy accolades:
Billings Exum Frye Moot Court Competition (Elon Law School, October 2024)
Justice Jama (’25) and Nathan Blair (’25)
Oralist Honors – Justice Jama (#5)
National Health Law Moot Court Competition (Southern Illinois University Law School, October 2024)
Semifinalist Team – Aaron Hendryx (‘25) and Emma Massa (‘25)
Oralist Honors – Aaron Hendryx (#5), Emma Massa (#7)
Brief-Writing Honors (#3)
National Moot Court Competition – Chicago Regionals (Loyola Chicago Law School, November 2024)
Quarterfinalist Team – Ryan Day (’25) and Kyle Pobanz (’25)
Quarterfinalist Team – Claudia Eder (’25) and LuLu Faulk (’25)
Chicago Bar Association Moot Court Competition (Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Chicago, November 2024)
Octofinalist (Sweet Sixteen) team – Elvis Riveras Salinas (’25) and Tiffany Lee (’25)
ABA First Amendment and Diversity in Media Law Competition (Austin, TX, February 2025)
Member of Finalist Team and Best Brief – Joy Atadoga (’26)
Jessup International Law Moot Court US Regional Competition (Portland, OR, February 2025)
Memorial-Writing Honors (#10) – Noor Qureshi (’26), Rishav Aikat (’26), and Carissa Margraf (’26)
ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition (Oklahoma City Regionals, February 2025)
Finalist Team – Allyson McBride (’25) and Adam Rosenthall (’25)
Semifinalist Team – Alivia Benedict (’25) and Allison McDevitt (’25)
Oralist Honors (#5) – Allyson McBride (’25)
Tulane Mardi Gras Invitational Sports Law Moot Court Competition (Tulane Law School, February 2025)
Brief-writing honors — Victoria Bichutskaya (’25) and Maggie McComas (’25)
Anderson Center Seventh Circuit Moot Court Competition (Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Chicago, March 2025)
Best Appellee Brief and Champion Team – Emma Leonard (’25) and Annie Hoodecheck (’25)
Global Antitrust Institute Invitational Moot Court Competition (E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, Washington, DC, March 2025)
Connor Meyer (’26), Jonathan Hall (’26) and Bre Castenada (’26)
Kaufman Securities Law Moot Court Competition (Fordham Law School, March 2025)
Parker McGuffey (’25) and Jacob Orban (’25)
Vis International Business Law Arbitration Moot (Vienna, Austria, March 2025)
Jack Quinn (’25), Alexia Hervet (LLM ’25), and Ludovica Davoli (LLM ’25)
Vis International Business Law Arbitration Moot (Hong Kong, March 2025)
Shuwei Li (’25), Yuan Ge (’25), Philippe Lin (’26), Max Fang (’25), and Alaya Mathur (LLM ’25)