Berkeley wins Traynor

The 53rd Roger J. Traynor appellate moot court competition took place on April 2–3. The event was hosted virtually by the University of West Los Angeles  School of Law (UWLA) the 2021 champion in the competition.

The Traynor is a nationally recognized competition for California law schools and is sponsored by the Gisnett Mandel Trust and the appellate law firm of Esner, Chang and Boyer. The hallmarks of the competition are the use of contemporary practical appellate issues and judging by appellate practitioners, trial judges, appellate judges and past winners.

Eleven law schools throughout California submitted briefs this year and faced off in oral arguments on the first day of the event. The two teams with the best combined scores competed in the final round. This year’s final consisted of UC Berkeley v. McGeorge. Presiding Justice Dennis Perluss presided over the final round along with Associate Justices Helen Bendix and Frank Menetrez. Berkeley was declared the winner in both the oral argument and the separate written brief competition.

The Geoffrey Wright Hall prize for individual achievement in oral advocacy was awarded to Julia Bennett of UC Berkeley. Six of the participating law schools (UC Berkeley, UC Hastings, San Joaquin, UC Davis, McGeorge and UWLA) placed two students in the category of individual merit for oral argument.
The final round of the competition can be viewed on the Traynor website (www.traynormoot.org) or here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-SP0AzDcgvQ