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Three moot court teams from LU competed Oct. 21 and 22 in the University of North Texas School of Law’s Invitational Moot Court Tournament—the largest undergraduate moot court invitational tournament in history – and received numerous individual and team awards.

The teams, coached and sponsored by Craig Tahaney, instructor of political science, received several notable accolades.

Bridge City senior Danelle Sanders, a first time competitive moot court participant, ranked top speaker out of 124 students and received a scholarship for her performance. According to the tournament director at UNT, Sanders’ Top Speaker Award is the first ever granted to a new student participant.

Siara Dodds, Beaumont junior, secured 13^th place on the speakers list and was also recognized with an award.

In addition to individual honors, two LU teams (one comprised of Sanders and Dodds, the other of Nederland junior Ryan Sherer and Beaumont senior Levi Morris) advanced to the tournament elimination rounds, ranking 17^th and 31^st out of 62, respectively. They were ultimately eliminated by schools with long histories of tournament participation: UNT and the U.S. Air Force Academy. The third team was comprised of Baytown senior Miroslava Zendejas and Vidor sophomore Robert Root.

This is only the second year Lamar teams have participated in competitive moot court, instated Fall 2015. With the exception of Siara Dodds, who was awarded Outstanding First Time Speaker at last year’s tournament, all 2016 team members were first-time participants.

Moot court is a competition in which undergraduate students engage in simulated legal argument before a hypothetical appellate court reviewing a fictitious case. Students draw on a limited number of actual appellate court decisions to support their arguments in a three-round competition structure.

For more information, contact Tahaney at (409) 880-8528 or cjtahaney@lamar.edu.