School of Law. Moot Court Board Records
Since its beginning, Wake Forest School of Law has educated students in practical application of the law and oral advocacy experience through Moot Court simulations. The school established the Moot Court Board in 1971 to organize intramural competitions and to support the school's performance at regional and national tournaments. This collection includes documents related to Moot Court Board activities. Materials include competition programs, news articles, and correspondences.
Biographical and Historical Note
Wake Forest College records show the first required moot court offering for students in 1894. Dean Needham Y. Gulley, Wake Forest School of Law's first dean, required students to participate in Moot Court as a way to apply legal theory to real-life scenarios. When the school moved to the Winston-Salem campus, the new law building featured a multi-purpose, moot court assembly room that seated 250 people.
In 1971, the school established the Moot Court Board, which organized an increased number of competitive opportunities for students. In the same year, the board started an intramural known today as the George Walker Moot Court Competition. In the 1980s, the board began additional intramural competitions, including the Cynthia J. Zeliff Trial Competition and the Edwin M. Stanley Moot Court competition. The Stanley and Walker competitions are held each fall and spring, respectively. The top sixteen finishers in each competition are invited to join the Moot Court Board, along with select honorable mention qualifiers.
In 1986, Wake Forest Law claimed its first national championship title at the National Moot Court Competition and continues to rank as a top performer, winning two national championship titles in both 2017 and 2018. The current Moot Court Board, along with the Student Trial Bar, coordinate and support the school's performance at regional and national tournaments each year.
Sources:
"Wake Forest Moot Court," Google Site. Available online at https://sites.google.com/wfu.edu/mootcourt/home?authuser=0
Collection Overview
This collection includes a program from the 26th Annual Edwin M. Stanley Moot Court Competition, correspondence from the national Moot Court Excecutive Board, and a printed online news article regarding the 2017 National Championship.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by Emily Houlditch, 2024 January
- Conditions Governing Access
- The collection is open for use.
- Conditions Governing Use
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- School of Law. Moot Court Board Records (RG19.12), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.