The University of Wisconsin Law School’s Moot Court team continues to draw national acclaim for the university after several top finishes in national competitions.

UW Law School teams have achieved recent success at national competitions, finishing highly in contests in Washington D.C. and Chicago, Moot Court President Larry Fogel said.

Moot court is a mock appellate court experience in which students take on the role of lawyers and argue their case in front of a judge, Fogel said.

Last week, a UW team traveled to Chicago to compete in the Saul Lefkowitz Intellectual Property Moot Court competition and after winning the regional competition, the team finished as semi-finalists at the national competition in Washington D.C., he said.

A team also recently traveled to a national competition in New York City, he said.

Kerry Gabrielson, one of the team members that traveled to New York City, said it was exciting to have the opportunity to argue cases in front of prominent judges at the nationally recognized competition.

Members of the team gain invaluable real world experience in the courtroom and gain confidence in their abilities, she said.

“It taught me that I can hold my own,” Gabrielson said. “It was a big confidence boost for my ability to argue.”

Fogel said UW also hosted a competition on campus last weekend with a focus on constitutional issues, which was attended by teams from “literally all across the country.”

Moot court consists of two components, he said. First, a team submits a brief – a statement that covers their appellate argument – that is read by a panel of judges and graded. Then, the team appears in front of the panel to argue their case.

“Students gain good writing skills and effective oral advocacy, in addition to academic credit,” Fogel said.

He said an important tenet of moot court is to effectively communicate your case to the judge in a limited amount of time.

Team members must put in a lot of individual work and research, Gabrielson added. After writing their brief for competition individually, the team practices their oral arguments in front of other team members and professors.

She said though the hard work associated with membership on the team and the “monumental” amount of time required to prepare for competitions could be tiring, she was proud of the team’s recent achievements.

Team members of the moot court are selected through competitive tryouts. Around 30 students are selected to be members of the UW Moot Court Board, Fogel said.

This year, the competitions focused specifically on Sixth Amendment issues. There is a new topic every year, all of which relate to the Constitution.

Fogel said competitions held by UW bear similarity to other moot court competitions held at universities around the country.

He added although UW teams did not compete, members focused their efforts on recruiting prestigious judges from the Madison area, including sitting judges from the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.