Clemson Moot Court team finds national success for the fifth year in a row

The Clemson Moot Court team, under the coaching of Department of Philosophy Lecturer Cary Berkeley Kaye, placed eighth in the country out of more than 150 entries for respondent’s brief at the American Moot Court Association’s 2024-2025 brief competition.

Team members Kate Tesh, a political science and criminal justice alumna, and Madeline O’Neill, a senior economics major, landed ahead of teams from Duke University, Georgetown University and University of Chicago, among others.

It was not long after Kaye began coaching Moot Court that the team saw success. After a year of preparation, while also navigating pandemic changes, she led her 2021 Clemson students to nationals for the oral argument competition.

In the 2022 competition, Tesh won Best Oralist out of 64 other competitors at the Bluegrass Regional Tournament. Tesh’s teammate Libby Morgan placed seventh.

In 2024, Teresa Ribeiro and Caroline Morgan took sixth place for respondent’s brief.

For Tesh, this year’s competition was the first time she submitted a written appellate brief. Competing in a new aspect of the Moot Court program strengthened her legal analysis and writing skills.

“The competition entailed taking our oral arguments as structured for conference competition, refining them, and explicitly laying out each logical step in their progression,” she said. “While this process required rigorous attention to detail and many hours of work, I felt that I gained a deeper understanding of the cases involved and strengthened my ability to articulate the key takeaways in each portion of legal analysis.”

O’Neill, who plans to attend law school at University of Colorado at Boulder, praised the impact that Kaye and Moot Court have had on her future.

“[Moot Court] has been one of my favorite courses at Clemson. Professor Kaye is amazing, and she expertly applies her own legal knowledge to how she teaches the class. I’ve taken two semesters of the class, and the knowledge I have gained has made me feel much more prepared for law school.”

For Kaye, it’s all about seeing students improve.

“It’s great exposure to core legal analysis and a great opportunity in a small-group setting to work on writing skills and legal argument. I think it’s good for Clemson to continue to have the vibrant prelaw opportunities that the College of Arts and Humanities offers,” she noted.

Kaye earned her J.D. from Yale University, M. Phil from Cambridge University and A.B. from Harvard University. She has been coaching Clemson Moot Court since she returned to Clemson in January of 2020. In 2024, she took on the additional leadership role of coaching Clemson Mock Trial.

Clemson Moot Court is housed in the College of Arts and Humanities but is open to all students with an interest in law. For more information and to get involved, contact Kaye at cbkaye@clemson.edu.