Contact: Janet Harvey-Clark, MSU College of Law, (517) 432-6959; or Russ White, University Relations, (517) 432-0923, whiterus@msu.edu

3/22/2005

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Teams from Michigan State University College of Law won top honors in leading national moot court competitions earlier this month.

A team of four MSU Law students – Michael Fawaz, Brittain Bandura, Michael Lufkin and Melissa Penrice – took top honors in the 30^th Annual Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition. The team won both the best brief and first-place oralists awards to become national champions after competition with 32 other teams from across the nation.

The Kaufman Competition, held at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, examined legal issues in federal securities law. This year’s case involved a fictional pharmaceutical company that allegedly violated the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The competition took place March 4-7.

A second MSU College of Law team traveled to New York to compete in the New York Law School’s Robert F. Wagner National Labor & Employment Law Moot Court Competition, winning the national award for best brief. The team also competed in the quarterfinals of the oral argument phase.

The MSU Law students – Ryann Embury, Aaron Vorce, Sean Hartley and Nathan Miller – competed against 40 other law school teams in this prestigious competition. The Wagner Competition is the nation’s largest student-run moot court competition and the only national competition dedicated exclusively to the areas of labor and employment law. 

“We are very proud of these students,” said MSU Law Dean Terence L. Blackburn. “Their achievements illustrate the Law College’s commitment to teaching students how legal theory and knowledge may be put into actual practice, ensuring their preparation for successful legal careers.”

Winning these two competitions adds to MSU Law’s moot court successes. In November 2004, the MSU College of Law Moot Court team – third-year law students William Cook, Jeffrey Formanczyk and Aaron Vorce – was awarded first place in the Annual National Entertainment Law Moot Court Competition at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, Calif. This was the second consecutive year that an MSU Law team captured the championship at this major event.

MSU College of Law was founded as the Detroit College of Law in 1891. To extend its commitment to educational excellence, the college affiliated with MSU in 1995 and moved to MSU’s East Lansing campus in 1997. The move enabled the law college to build state-of-the-art facilities and to provide the benefits of a Big Ten campus.

MSU College of Law strengthened its affiliation with MSU in 2004, becoming more closely aligned academically. The association between the two schools has led to a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program at the law college. Today, the college is one of only two private law schools to be affiliated with a research university and one of the oldest continuously operating independent law colleges in the nation.