Moot Court Team Finishes Second in the Virtual Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition

TALLAHASSEE—Congratulations to our Moot Court Team on finishing second to Duke University in the Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition and receiving the Gus A. Schill, Jr. Finalist Award this past weekend. The competition was “held” in Portland, Maine, but due to COVID-19 teams competed remotely via Zoom over four days. This gave them opportunities to work on making persuasive arguments remotely, which is becoming an increasingly more important skill for attorneys. Team members Holly Parker Curry and Alexander Duarte, who are both second-year students, also won the Maritime Law Association of the United States Award for the Best Brief in the competition and the Best Respondent’s Brief Award. Although the format of the oral advocacy component of the competition was altered, event organizers did not make any changes to the brief-judging process. The team was coached by alumnus Bailey Howard (’17), who is a judicial clerk for Chief Judge Mark Walker, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, and FSU Law’s Dunbar Family Professor Steve Johnson. Additionally, Curry and Duarte both are enrolled in Admiralty Law taught by Captain Alan Richard ('94), who helped the students when they had competition-related questions. The team was also assisted by third-year student Taylor Fleming.

In addition to the team honors, Curry earned the Rebecca Jackson Award as the best oral advocate in the championship round and the James Walker Award as the second-best oral advocate in the preliminary rounds. When presenting awards, one outstanding admiralty lawyer remarked that Curry was the best oralist he had seen in the five moot court competitions he judged this year. Twenty-six teams participated in the competition, including teams from Boston University, University of Texas, Washington University in St. Louis and many other law schools with strong programs in admiralty law. We are incredibly proud of our talented student advocates and grateful for their dedicated coaches! Please join us in congratulating them on performing so well under very unique circumstances.