Extracurricular Activities and Moot Court

WHERE CAN I FIND INFORMATION?

Student organizations gain members through a variety of ways. At some schools, special sign-up days for first-year students are planned, and students have the opportunity to put their names on mailing lists. Other schools don't plan sign-up days, and student groups solicit potential members by posting information around the school, or by depositing information in the mailboxes of all first-years. A number of schools have moved into the 1990s; information on their student organizations can be accessed over the Internet. This is especially useful for entering first-years who are unsure if a particular group exists at their future school, or want to find out which groups are available to them.


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WILL I HAVE TIME TO DO THESE ACTIVITIES?

Perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether first-years will have any time to engage in activities outside their required studies. The answer is a resounding yes. As the saying goes, "All work and no extracurriculars makes Jack a dull student." Or something like that.

The truth is that no one will force you to participate in student organizations. Some students are more than happy to bury themselves in their reading, requiring a minimum of human interaction. But generally speaking, those students who do engage in extracurricular activities add to the depth of their experience at law school. And here's a little piece of news: Those second- and third-years-the ones who are running the majority of student organizations-were once first-year students, too! That's right, they were once sweating it out, thrust into a new academic environment with hours upon hours of reading. So they know the plight of first-years, and they usually will not make excessive demands on the time of first-years. If they did, they would quickly find their membership dwindling, and their clubs would mysteriously dry up. So don't lose heart; there should be time for everything.

WHY BOTHER?

The decision to participate in a student organization is a personal one that rests with the individual student. Most law school students, however, participate in at least one student organization, and most would say they benefited from the experience.

Each time I check my mailbox at school, I am reminded that extracurricular life is alive and well. Corning from a women's college, I was particularly pleased to find a strong women's community at my school, reflected in the mentoring programs sponsored by Law Women, the strategy sessions led by the 2XTask Force to discuss legal education reform, and the outreach efforts of the Battered Women's Project. My school is also a great cultivating ground for new student ideas. For instance, working with faculty of the NYU Global Law School Program, we started a student exchange project with law students from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. I think it is this strong student involvement, particularly in public interest activities, that really contributes to making law school a humane and friendly place. -LAUREN ASTE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

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Aside from the numerous social benefits that have been described in this article, the fact remains that one place where student organizations always look good is on a resume. If an important goal of the law school experience is to get a job as a lawyer, it is not unreasonable to say that involvement in student organizations is a factor that contributes to that goal. Whether involvement in student activities provides a comfortable topic to discuss in a law firm interview or allows a student to meet practitioners in their area of interest, participation in student organizations demonstrates the desire of a student to go beyond the pages of textbooks and the four walls of the classroom.

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MOOT COURT AND OTHER COMPETITIONS

Imagine standing all alone behind a podium, knees shaking as you stare into the eyes of four judges. As your 15 minutes quickly pass, the judges try desperately to stump you with their questions and to scare you into giving up your dream of becoming a star litigator. Despite their sometimes challenging (yet sometimes stupid) questions and hypotheticals, you remain calm and respond with confidence. After some deliberation, the judges announce a decision in favor of your client, and although you are arguing in a classroom instead of a courtroom and competing in moot court rather than in real court, the taste of success is just as sweet. -MICHELLE WILCK, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

WHEN WOULD I GET INVOLVED IN MOOT COURT?

Some schools have moot court boards. Like the student organizations described earlier, moot court boards usually draw their membership from students in all three years of law school. Typically, first-year students will engage in some sort of competition in order to be considered for a spot on a moot court board. Many schools tie first-year moot court competitions into a lawyering or legal research and writing class, where students are instructed on the mechanics of brief writing and oral argument by third-years and practicing attorneys.

First-year competitions allow students to get a taste of what moot court involves and are often the first opportunity students have to engage in public speaking in a law school setting. Performing well in an oral argument, however, is not the only way students are accepted into moot court organizations. Often, moot court boards will have a writing competition, selecting members from the first-year class who demonstrate superior brief-writing skills.

Moreover, oral arguments in moot court are only half the story. Many moot court boards produce an annual casebook. Casebooks contain moot court problems written by law students and involve tremendous amounts of preparation.

Students who write casebook problems have thoroughly researched an area of the law on which there is a dispute among courts, and they write this dispute into an elaborate problem to be argued by moot court competitors. Moot court boards that produce casebooks of high quality will usually find a demand for their casebooks across the country for use in moot court competitions at various law schools. The creativity required of the oral advocate in a moot court competition finds a parallel in the creativity required to write a successful moot court problem.

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