Moot Court Holds on to #1 Ranking
UC Law SF鈥檚 storied finished the fall semester with a win streak, holding on to its #1 national ranking for the third straight semester.
The discipline of dozens of student competitors and their 45 alumni coaches鈥攚ho practiced multiple times a week over several months鈥攑aid off with the . The ranking鈥檚 point system factors in the number and placement of wins at nationwide competitions.
For example, 3L Zhi Yang Tan and 2L Zoe Gallagher aced the Wechsler First Amendment Competition, giving the team its first national championship of the 21-22 season. Mark D鈥橝rgenio (鈥05) and 3L student Nikayla Johnson coached. Other teams made strong showings in four other fall contests to put the UC Law SF team ahead of 21 other schools.
鈥淗astings is lucky in that we have an incredible pool of talent, and we have an amazing reputation,鈥 says Senior Assistant Dean and Adjunct Professor Toni Young (鈥76), the program鈥檚 longtime leader. The team has consistently placed in the top 10 for about three decades. In Fall 2020, the team clinched the enviable #1 spot and has shown no sign of letting it go ever since.
Madison Boucher (鈥21) said she got hooked on the program from her first competition in the first semester of her second year. In her third year, she became a co-chair and helped the program transition to Zoom. As everything moved online, moot court oral argument practices gave her the welcome chance to meet new people and interact with both students and coaches.
鈥淚 loved it,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t was an opportunity to stay connected during an isolated time.鈥 Her grades improved, too. When it came time to take the bar exam, she realized she could draw on many of the skills she learned, like applying the law to facts and writing concisely. The competitions also exposed her to many different areas of the law. When she saw a question on the exam about criminal search and seizure involving a cell phone, she breathed a sigh of relief. That subject had come up at several competitions, which boosted her confidence during the exam.
With bar passage in hand, Boucher is now working two jobs that she landed thanks to Moot Court connections. As an academic program coordinator at UC Law SF, she works for Young preparing legal research and writing coursework for 1Ls. She also works for , a service for lawyers to format and finalize their briefs for court filing. Christopher Dalla (鈥20) founded the startup.
Academic Dean Morris Ratner congratulated the Hastings Moot Court team. He credited Young鈥檚 inspiring leadership, along with effort put in by the students and dedicated alumni and student mentors and coaches.
鈥淢oot Court has intrinsic value as an educational experience,鈥 Ratner says. 鈥淧articipation correlates with higher bar passage rates and positive employment outcomes. But it’s also nice to know that we are the best.鈥