USD Law Students Receive "Best Brief" Award at 2015 Duberstein Moot Court Competition

Law Students Win Big at 2015 Duberstein Moot Court Competition

New York (March 9, 2015) - University of San Diego (USD) School of Law's Duberstein Moot Court team advanced to the Octo-Round and received the “Best Brief” award at this year’s Conrad Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition held at St. John’s University School of Law in Queens, N.Y.

Third-year students Ha Nguyen and Lauren Vega competed alongside more than 60 teams to advance in the tournament and receive the award for best brief among all other briefs submitted nationwide.

The team was coached by attorneys Kendra Hall, Jeffrey Isaacs, Philip Giacinti, Ed Silverman, and Mary Jo Wiggins, vice dean and professor of law. USD School of Law and the law firm of Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch jointly fund the competition in order to defray student travel costs and competition fees.

"This is the 11th-straight year USD has fielded a team for this prestigious, nationwide competition and these students deserve tremendous credit for their extremely strong performance culminating in this 'Best Brief' award," said Vice Dean Wiggins. "The training and experience gained by our students at this competition goes a long way toward ensuring that they are 'practice-ready.' We are grateful for the attorney coaches, the judges, and Procopio for helping to make this possible."

Special thanks to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter Bowie and retired bankruptcy judges John Ryan and John Hargrove who presided at oral argument practice sessions before the New York competition.

About Duberstein Moot Court

The annual Duberstein Moot Court Competition is the premier, nationwide competition that attracts law school teams from around the United States each March at St John’s University in Queens, N.Y. The competition involves appellate brief writing and two days of oral arguments about a pressing issue facing the Bankruptcy Bar as selected for argument by prominent bankruptcy practitioners.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Celebrating 60 years of alumni success, the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law is recognized for the excellence of its faculty, depth of its curriculum, and strength of its clinical programs. Each year, USD educates approximately 900 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 81 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 23rd worldwide in all-time faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, nonprofit, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.