A UA Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law moot court team recently landed the University its first ever championship in the 69th Annual National Moot Court Competition in New York.

This team composed of second-year law students defeated more than 150 other teams, including the defending national champions, Northwestern.

Members of the team include Anne Miles Golson, Lindsey Barber and Cory Church. The team is coached by Assistant Dean of Students Mary Ksobiech, and it is managed by a second-year law student, Josh Kravec.

Anne Miles Golson, JD candidate and UA law student, was named the Best Advocate during the tournament, and she said she was not expecting this.

“Our school does this competition as a training for the 3L competition, so when we made it to the finals, we were going into it as a celebratory trip to New York,” Golson said. “However, we still prepared, worked hard and won. It wasn’t even on my radar, but it was a really cool experience competing in front of actual judges.”

Schools across the country in the competition were presented with a fictional problem that could make its way up to the Supreme Court and were assigned a written brief advocating for the hypothetical client in the fall. All teams then competed in various regional competitions. The UA team went to Montgomery, Alabama, on November 2018 where they were named co-champions of the region. They, along with 24-28 other schools, then advanced to the national competition in New York in January 2019.

Cory Church, JD candidate and UA law student, said this was a surreal experience, as no team from Alabama has yet to accomplish anything like this before.

“All three of us had put in so much work, and going against high-caliber teams like Northwestern was a really validating experience,” Church said. “Alabama has a great law school. It’s nationally ranked in the top 30 in the country, but I think perhaps some people outside of Alabama maybe don’t recognize that as much as they would with a school like Northwestern.”

The winning team will not compete in another moot court competition until January or February of 2020. The three law students will likely receive spots on the ABA National team at the University, which is comprised of six third-year law students. They hope to stick together and function as a team in next year’s competition.

“To show that Alabama can go up there and compete and hold our own against any caliber school was such a rewarding experience,” Church said.