San Joaquin College of Law students Gary Caine, Christina Widner, and Jesse Molina
Congratulations to the San Joaquin College of Law team, which took third place at the UC Davis Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition this past weekend! SJCL students Gary Caine, Jesse Molina, and Christina Widner took on 20 teams from 15 other law schools, ranging from Cornell and Pepperdine to Columbia and Notre Dame. SJCL was the only non-ABA school in the competition, but in the end, was bested only by Hastings in first place and Campbell in second. SJCL Professors Gregory Gillett and Justin Atkinson coached our team to an astounding finish the weekend.
In the opening rounds on February 3rd, the SJCL Team defeated the University of Michigan and one of Campbell’s two teams in direct competition and headed into the quarterfinals ranked second in total points. In the next morning’s quarterfinals, SJCL defeated Pepperdine University's team, but later lost to Campbell’s other team by only two points (286 to 288 out of 300) in the semi-finals. The SJCL Team also took 5th place in brief writing, a category in which the difference between first and fifth place was mere points.
SJCL outscored and outperformed teams from Cornell, Columbia, Notre Dame, Southern Illinois, UNLV, Santa Clara, Valparaiso, New York University, Brigham Young University and more. One of UC Hastings’ two teams won the competition with a top score only one point higher than SJCL's top score.
Aside from an outstanding performance which places SJCL on the National scene in this area of law, the Team’s poise, prep, and overall professionalism demonstrated some of the highest standards seen at the competition. After judging one of the rounds,one of the judges commented to Professor Gillett "I have argued for 30 years and in front of all courts in the land (including the Supreme Court) and this team has better advocacy skills than many, if not all, of the lawyers that I have seen."
The team had an opportunity to meet and mingle with top jurists, including Justice Cruz Reynoso, who was also extremely impressed with their knowledge of the law, poise in presentation and ability to connect with the judges. Meanwhile, a coach from Campbell commented that he had never seen any law school come to the competition with as large of an entourage of supporters as SJCL. Those ten supporters included parents, friends, a spouse, and SJCL staff.