Eugenia Carlaftes and Crystal Wang
At Cardozo High School, there are many programs and activities students can participate in. One of these activities is our Moot Court program. Moot Court is centered around law and helps students get an experience that will be helpful later on especially if they plan on going to law school.
Evan Lin, a senior at Cardozo and the president of the program describes it as a, “Stimulated appellate level oral argument where you get ten minutes to argue for your client, in front of the supreme court, the panel three judges.”
“Basically, the judges interrupt you with questions, and you have to answer them,” he explained.
Each year, the students in Moot Court participate in a competition against other schools in a professional setting to defend their clients. The winning school receives a trophy. The students on the Moot Court team at Cardozo have worked very hard this past school year, and have now made it to the semi-finals against schools in our area. While in the past, Cardozo has placed decently high getting into the quarter-finals, this the first time to have made it into the semi-finals.
“We’re going against Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, so you know the quote on quote ‘elite schools’ and Cardozo’s right up there with them,” Ms. Amato, the Moot Court Advisor, proudly shared.
The pride and confidence she has for her students is very apparent in her words. While making it to the semi-finals is an incredible boost in pride and team spirit, it also serves as an amazing opportunity for the students in Moot Court. The semi-finals will take place in a real federal court with real federal court judges asking them questions, which provides an exciting experience for the team.
“It honestly feels great, like I wasn’t even expecting it to be completely honest. I wasn’t expecting us to get this far. But now that we did I think we can like- pass finals and win. Like I’m definitely rooting for us to win, obviously,” stated Shivam Desai, a sophomore at Cardozo.
The morale between the team is seen to be incredibly high. Each member expressed enthusiasm for winning, “I think what motivates us is getting the trophy for first place,” Desai exclaims. Like Desai, many of the other members of the Moot Court show are committed to the team and to possibly bring home the trophy.
The Moot Court team had been working very hard this year to make it to the finals. “Monday to Friday, we’ve been practicing after school for at least an hour, up to two hours, everyone gets to say their speech twice, 10-minutes long each, hard questions, basically covering all of our bases,” recalls Bhaswi Singh, a junior at Cardozo.
The president of the program walked us through some of the ways they had been preparing. “We have to come up with answers to the questions but we usually don’t know what kind of questions they’re going to ask. We can prepare for it, but it’s usually on the spot,” Lin states. “We’re non-stop meetings, running practices every day until competition.”
Their dedication to practice was so apparent, it was no wonder they made it to the semi-finals of the competition. “Just practice practice practice.” Ms. Amato reiterated. “Practice is truly the key in Moot Court, as you never know what will be asked during the trial.”
Sadly, Cardozo did end up losing in the semi-finals, but to have made it to top four is an incredible feat. Although Cardozo hasn’t won this year, Lin explains, “I feel like it’s a very rewarding experience.” He highlights how there is more to Moot Court than just winning. Next year, Cardozo’s team is sure to come back stronger than before.
