Moot confusion

Today was our first and only moot court meeting of the semester. The attorney-instructor whisked through this semester’s requirements, circulated some sign-up sheets, and then asked if we had any questions.

Jill looked around, and then said,

Jill: “I have absolutely no idea what is going on.”

After a collective nervous laugh, the attorney-instructor re-explained how the course works:

1. Moot court is a February-only class this semester.
2. We have to revise our appellate brief and do three oral arguments, including an off-brief argument.
3. The course is over on February 22nd.

Basically, we have an oral argument each week except for the week our brief is due. And we are on a curve, with 9 students with no objective way to evaluate our performance.

Although I had a major “wtf” moment while sitting in the class, the requirements don’t seem so awful now. Revising a moot court brief is not as terrible as writing it, and the oral arguments aren’t burdensome if  I properly schedule the arguments.

The trick to moot court (and anything in law school really) is to do the work instead of procrastinating or bitching about it. We’ll see how I do.