Three teams from the moot court program in the political science department at Cal State Long Beach have earned bids to the national tournament at the Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 18 and 19. The top 64 teams will be present from the six regional groups.
Four of the CSULB teams were placed in the sweet sixteen and one in the elite eight, according to moot court program director and political science lecturer Lewis Ringel.
"That is two times as many teams as CSULB has ever had in the sweet sixteen," Ringel said, adding that six of the top 16 orators of the tournament were from CSULB's program.
The moot court tournament from Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 had 26 teams from eight schools - its biggest turnout ever. CSULB has hosted the moot court Western Regional for the past six years.
The hybrid team of Mason Taylor, a CSULB student, and Anna Accomazzo, a student from Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., earned an automatic bid to the nationals after finishing fifth in the Western Regional at CSULB.
Other CSULB moot court participants (who consist of both juniors and seniors) Paige McCormack, Ted McNamara, Melissa Sanchez and Muhammad Ataya earned at-large bids to the tournament in Iowa over winter break.
Of McCormack, she "earned a bid to nationals last year and she delayed graduating to come back and compete again," Ringel said. "She is one of a select few students to earn successive bids to nationals and the only student to date in CSULB history to do so."
A prestigious panel of evaluators judged the tournament, including: U.S. District judges Otis Wright and George Schiavelli; California Superior Court judges Bradford Andrews, Deborah Andrews, Charles Clay, Norman Delterre, Richard Lyman (retired) and Jesse Rodriguez; Pam Swindells, the past Long Beach Bar Association president; and Mike Farras, chancellor of Patrick Henry College.
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