National Moot Court Team Shows Strong Performance in Regional Competition, Hawkins Receives Best Advocate Award

December 8, 2008

The 2008 Philip J. Fulton Law Office National Moot Court Team competed in the regional rounds of the New York City Bar National Moot Court Competition held in Lansing, Michigan Nov. 15-16. The team of Josh Carter, Tony Eufinger, Diana Hawkins and Sarah Kwasigroch demonstrated exceptional oral advocacy and brief writing skills.

Diana Hawkins earned a perfect oral advocacy score and received the Best Oralist Award in the preliminary rounds for the first day of the competition. One of the competition judges, an appellate judge in Michigan for 30 years, said of Diana, that he had seen no one better in his entire career and that she “blew it out of the ballpark.”’ Diana and her partner, Josh Carter, produced one of the top five briefs among the 19 teams competing.

Tony Eufinger and Sarah Kwasigroch excelled in the preliminary rounds and advanced to the quarter-finals in the second day of the competition before losing an extremely close argument.

Professor Chuck Cohen, co-coach to the team with Professor Risa Lazaroff, said, “The judges for that round, including a sitting state court judge, were unanimous in stressing that Tony and Sarah were far stronger than most practicing attorneys they had seen.”

Just prior to their departure for the regional competition, alumni, friends, family, faculty and staff gathered together to cheer on the team in the honorary round held at the Law School on Nov. 11. Dean Jack A. Guttenberg, Jonathan W. Marshall, L’70 and Samuel A. Peppers III, L’93 served as guest judges for the evening’s arguments. Diana was awarded the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers Philip J. Fulton Excellence in Oral Advocacy Award for her strong performance that evening as well.