From March 20-22, two teams from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law competed in the Western Regional Giles Rich Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition, which was held in the Palo Alto, California offices of the law firm of Morrison and Foerster.
According to team coach David Jones, a Salt Lake City attorney and 2004 graduate of the Quinney College, both teams, the first consisting of Alex Stein and Abraham Bates and the second of Ruke Wang and Kirk Coombs performed well. “Hard work by both teams as well as excellent legal writing and advocacy programs at the Quinney College contributed to the success of both teams,” Jones said.
During the competition, the team of Wang and Coombs defeated a team from Denver in the preliminary round before falling victim to a team from the University of California, Berkeley in the quarterfinals. In the semi-finals, the Stein-Bates team defeated a team from UC-Davis and proceeded to defeat a team from Berkeley in the final round.
Jones noted that the College of Law’s success was made possible by a number of generous supporters. “While all the teams involved deserve recognition, the local attorneys who donated their time in the form of judging oral practice rounds, critiquing briefs, and organizing the local competition deserve recognition as well for the generous donation of their time and expertise,” he said. Jones further cited the financial support provided by area law firms including Workman Nydegger and Stoel Rives, among others, as critical to the success of the program.
With the regional competition behind them, the Stein-Bates team will go on to compete as one of eight teams in the National Competition to be held from April 22-24 in Washington, D.C. Jones predicts the competition will be intense. “The panels that Alex and Abe will encounter at the National Competition will require them to rethink the legal standards and application of facts. More specifically, the panels will be the best at attacking every legal and factual position presented by Abe and Alex. Therefore, not only will they need to be highly prepared, they will also need to be prepared to consider and create new lines of reasoning that they have not encountered prior to their national oral argument rounds.”