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YSU Moot Court team advances to national competition
Students hone arguments before judges
By Denise Dick
youngstown
Beneath the bright lights of the austere 7th District Court of Appeals courtroom, four Youngstown State University students pleaded their cases.
Kevin Hulick and Travis Watson, and James Toliver and Mark Cornman are spending a significant portion of their Christmas break preparing for the Jan. 14-15 national competition of the American Collegiate Moot Court Association.
The YSU Moot Court teams earned the national berth because of their success at American Collegiate Moot Court Association’s Midwest Regional Tournament last month at College of Wooster. Atty. Ron Slipski is the students’ coach and instructor.
“Most of the schools that they’re up against are private institutions,” Slipski said.
Watson didn’t try to add up all of the hours that he’s put into the preparation.
“It’s a lot,” he said.
The students verse themselves in the case before them, studying related cases. They must be able to argue either side of a case.
The case involves a same-sex couple and the health- care law that requires them to buy health insurance. Hulick and Watson represented the couple, and Toliver and Cornman represented the state.
All four students — Watson, Hulick and Cornman of Austintown and Toliver of Youngstown — say that law is the career they plan to pursue. Each learned their argumentation skills in high school debate: Toliver at Ursuline High School and his three teammates at Austintown Fitch.
Moot court is defined as simulated legal argument before hypothetical appellate courts.
Competition judges evaluate teams based on the knowledge of the subject matter, their responses to questions, forensic skills and courtroom demeanor.
But the students practice before actual appeals-court judges, specifically, Judges Gene Donofrio, Cheryl L. Waite and Mary DeGenaro of the 7th District Court of Appeals.
“We’re very impressed,” Judge Donofrio said. “This is something that’s usually done in the first year of law school. These are undergraduates.”
Slipski said the judges have been helpful and generous with their time in helping the students prepare.
The panel of appeals- court judges pelted the students with questions, prompting them to defend their positions while staying on point.
Toliver fires back a list of related cases in response to the judges’ questions. But he returns to the case at hand.
That’s crucial because the rules allow competitors to refer to secondary cases, but they are required to stay focused on the primary case being presented.
Besides the three appeals-court judges, Ohio Disciplinary Counsel Jonathan Coughlan; J. Dean Carro, director of appellate advocacy at the University of Akron’s School of Law; Atty. Michelle Manzoian; Alysia Damico, Fitch’s speech and debate coach; and Youngstown attorneys Shawn Scharf, Megan Graff, George Millich and Matt Vansuch also help the teams.