External Moot Court – Put Your Law School Skills Into Practice!

Honors Moot Court External (HMCE) selects the finest legal writers, oral advocates, skilled negotiators, and client counselors to represent Santa Clara Law in competition against other law schools in the most prestigious moot court tournaments in the country. Teams of two to three law students are selected for each competition. Thereafter, these elite teams focus on writing a winning brief and refining oral argument, or honing their negotiation/counseling skills, through a series of practice moots with professors, practicing attorneys, and members of the judiciary. Teams have competed around the world, and on a broad range of topics. HMCE is a unique experience you won’t get in a classroom.

Interested In Joining Honors Moot Court External?

Be on the lookout for emails and informational sessions scheduled throughout the Fall and Spring Semesters. We typically select competitors for competitions the semester prior.

All upper-division students are eligible to participate in at least some of our external competitions. To participate in an appellate competition, upper division students are required to have completed an Advocacy course either over the summer or in the fall.

Current 1Ls: While you are not yet eligible for HMCE, you can still prepare to compete! If you are interested in participating in an HMCE competition after your 1L year, consider completing Advocacy in the summer. Your initial brief submissions and oral advocacy scores from your Advocacy class are very important to the tryout process; they will be used as a base consideration for your HMCE team tryout.

Types of HMCE Competitions

In past years, Santa Clara students have competed in HMCE appellate competitions including

• Wechsler National First Amendment Moot Court Competition, involving constitutional law
• Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition, involving constitutional law
• National Criminal Procedure Tournament, involving criminal procedure
• Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, involving trademark law
• Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition, involving patent law

As noted above, interested students must have completed Advocacy before applying to compete in one of these tournaments. Students must have completed Advocacy, and not concurrently taking Advocacy for these competitions.

Santa Clara students also have competed in negotiation and client counseling competitions including:

• National Sports Law Negotiation Competition
• ABA Negotiation Competition
• ABA Client Counseling Competition
• Environmental Law Negotiation Competition
• Clara Barton International Humanitarian Law Competition
• Jean Pictet International Humanitarian Law
• eSports Villanova Negotiation Competition

We recommend that interested students enroll in a Negotiations class during your Fall semester or take other related coursework as appropriate.

In addition, we are always on the lookout to add new moot court competitions, particularly within specialty subject areas! For instance, in Fall 2020, Santa Clara competed for the first time in the Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition where the team earned a Regional Best Brief award and advanced from regional oral argument rounds to nationals.

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity! Are you a student interested in competing? Complete this interest form and we will be in touch!

Course Credit
Students may earn between one and two credits for participating in HMCE, depending on the competition. Each credit requires 50 hours of substantive work that the Faculty Advisor will certify. See the course catalog for further information. Please note that these units are ungraded and do not count toward the experiential requirement.

Coaches
A member of the Santa Clara Law faculty or a practicing attorney will serve as a coach for each team. Generally, coaches bring both expertise in the competition topic (e.g., trademark law, sports law) and experience in the particular skill (e.g., brief writing and oral argument skills, negotiation skills).

Are you a practicing attorney or Santa Clara alum interested in helping our moot court program as a coach or by serving as a judge for a practice moot? We’d love to have you! Complete this judge’s interest form and we’ll be in touch. Thank you in advance for your support!

2023 – 2024 HONORS MOOT COURT EXTERNAL BOARD

One great perk of competing in HMCE? Eligibility to serve on its Board! Thank you to the amazing student competitors and leaders who make up the HMCE Board:

Faculty Advisor: Professor Mary Procaccio-Flowers

Welcome to our 2023-2024 HMCE Board

HMCE Director & ABA Negotiation Competition Manager

Kylie Kovach 

HMCE Assistance Director & Crim Pro Competition Manager

Joana Garcia

HMCE Assistant Director & ABA Client Counseling Competition Manager

Noel Ben Salem 

eSports Villanova Competition Manager

Blair Huang 

Thomas Tang Competition Manager

Nyssa Leonardi 

Giles (Patent) Competition Manager & Social Media Manager

Tatiana Sanden 

Lefkowitz Competition Manager

Jacob Kim 

International Competition Manager

Cassidy Bauer 

Public Relations Chair

Maria Williams

Please send any questions you have about HMCE to the Board, at hmce@scu.edu.