TALLAHASSEE—The Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team won first place at the 2004 Robert Orseck Memorial Competition, sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the Florida Bar. The competition was held during The Florida Bar Convention, which ran from June 23- 26 in Boca Raton. 

Third-year law students Tiffany Burton and Heather Becerra beat out competitors from eight other Florida law schools. Burton also won Best Oralist in the final round and Becerra took the title of Best Oralist in the preliminary round. 

“This is one of our most significant victories because the competition among Florida law schools is tough and, as a result, there is a lot of intra-state rivalry,” says Professor B.J. Priester, who coached the team. “I was impressed at how quickly and how hard our team worked to pull this together.” 

The case students argued concerned whether a police officer’s use of a K-9 inspection dog during a routine traffic stop constituted an illegal search under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“This was a great Moot Court Team win, not only because of all the Florida law schools that were competing against us, but also because the final round was argued before five members of the Florida Supreme Court,” says Burton. “We received invaluable feedback from the justices and judges in both the preliminary and final rounds.” 

Other recent top victories by the Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team include:

• First place in the 29th Annual Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition at Fordham Law School in New York City
• First place overall award at the Earle Zehmer Moot Court Workers’ Compensation Competition in Orlando. The FSU students also took Best Oral Advocates and Overall Best Brief
• Best Overall Team and Best Brief honors at the National Telecommunications Competition held at Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.