Changes

The Williams College Moot Court Team is a program of the Williams College Law Society, and is associated with the American Collegiate Moot Court Association. The mission of the Moot Court Team is to bring students interested in Moot Court together, to empower them, with a basic, general, and practical understanding of appellate advocacy, to compete in tournaments at the local, regional, and national level, and to WIN!!!

Moot Court is a simulation of an appellate court proceeding, also known as mock Supreme Court and Supreme Court Simulation. Moot Court involves teams of two student-contestants competing in front of a panel of judges, with briefs and oratory detailing the dimensions of the legal problem before the appellate court. Students argue a hypothetical legal case known as “the competition case.” To do so, students must research the cases and laws cited in “the competition case.” Moot court judges ask students questions and grade the students on the basis of their knowledge of the case, their response to questioning, their forensic skills, and their demeanor. Oral argument lasts 40 minutes (each side gets 20 minutes) and each student is expected to speak for a minimum of 7 minutes. Each competition is sanctioned by The American Collegiate Moot Court Association (AMTA) with practicing judges and attorneys presiding over and scoring the competition.