Energy & Sustainability Moot Court team makes the Final Four; ABA Appellate team makes regional semifinals and tours US Supreme Court

LSU Law’s moot court teams enjoyed a very successful weekend from March 8-10, and the ABA Appellate team members had the rare chance to go behind the scenes at the Supreme Court of the United States.

National Energy & Sustainability Moot Court Competition Team Are Top 4 in the Nation

Energy Moot Court Team and Coach

Congratulations to the Law Center’s National Energy & Sustainability Moot Court Competition team, who advanced into the Final Four in this year’s competition. Team members Daniel Bosch, Erick Norem, and Marina Wilson faced off against teams from 29 other law schools from across the United States, and the LSU Law team advanced through a series of elimination brackets into the National Semifinals. The Energy & Sustainability Moot Court Competition team is coached by Charlotte Goudeau (LSU Law ’15), who is an attorney for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

This year’s Energy & Sustainability Moot Court Competition problem asked students to brief challenging issues, including the applicability of the Clean Water Act to coal combustion residuals from coal-fired power plants and whether rules adopted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that govern electricity utility companies’ rate schedules are arbitrary and capricious and/or unconstitutional regulatory takings.

Moran-Thrash American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition “Gold” Team are Regional Semifinalists

 Congratulations to the Law Center’s Thomas J. Moran and Erin Moran Thrash ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition Team (NAAC) “Gold” Team – students Daniel Price, Mary Allison Mitchell, and Kaylyn Blosser – who advanced into the Semifinals (Round 4) of the Washington, D.C., regional rounds of the NAAC. The NAAC is the American Bar Association’s appellate moot court competition and is one of the “Big 3” moot court competitions held nationwide each year. The ABA regional rounds are held in six cities across the United States, and 146 teams from 88 different law schools participated in the NAAC this year. LSU Law’s Moran-Thrash ABA NAAC teams are coached by Prof. Kathy Flynn Simino (LSU Law ’87).

The Law Center’s ABA NAAC teams are supported in part by the generous gift of Thomas J. Moran and Erin Moran Thrash (LSU Law ’82).

In addition to their success at the D.C. regional rounds, both of our Moran-Thrash ABA NAAC teams were lucky enough to have the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the United States Supreme Court. Team members Daniel Price, Kaylyn Blosser, Mary Allison Mitchell, Briana Reid, John Griffin, and Indigo Diekmann, along with Advocacy Fellow Annie Scardulla, were taken throughout the Supreme Court building – they visited the chambers of Associate Justice Samuel Alito and also had the chance to visit many of the Court’s facilities (including the Court’s own gym and basketball court, a/k/a the “Highest Court in the Land”) that are not generally open to the public. Each team member also had the opportunity to stand behind the lectern in the Supreme Court courtroom. The team ended their tour by visiting the statue of Chief Justice John Marshall, where each team member rubbed the statue’s foot for good luck.

The team received this very rare opportunity courtesy of LSU Law alum J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, who is currently a law clerk for Justice Alito. Ben was a very successful member of LSU Law’s moot court program – he won the 2013 Tullis Moot Court Competition, 2013 Opening Statement Competition, and 2015 Dean’s Cup Competition, and was a highly successful member of the ABA NAAC team, winning two best brief awards and a best individual oralist award. ABA NAAC coach Prof. Kathy Flynn Simino arranged the tour with Ben for the team.