UWLA School of Law students Dalia Maayah and Patricia Snyder have won the 2021 Roger Traynor Moot Court Competition. They were victorious in the Final Round of the oral argument competition on April 18, defeating the team from Loyola Law School. The championship round was presided over by Administrative Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert, Administrative Presiding Justice Elwood Lui, and Associate Justice Helen Bendix. All three of these esteemed appellate judges sit on the Second Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal.  

The UWLA team advanced to the Final after excelling in each of two preliminary oral argument rounds a day earlier. In the preliminary rounds, involving 26 competitors from 10 law schools throughout California, Ms. Snyder received the highest individual scores of any participant and was awarded the Geoffrey Wright Award for Individual Achievement in Oral Advocacy.  

The Traynor competition is a nationally recognized appellate moot court competition and has been in existence for over 50 years. Only judges and legal specialists are eligible to serve as oral argument judges at the annual event. This year's competition included teams from UC Berkeley School of Law, UC Davis, UC Hastings, Loyola Law School, McGeorge School of Law as well as other institutions. UWLA also received a second-place award in the "Excellence in Appellate Advocacy" category for outstanding overall performance and finished third in the separate written brief competition.  

This is the second time in the last four years that a UWLA moot court team under the direction of Professor David Glassman has won the Traynor. In 2020, Professor Glassman's UWLA team won the Best Respondent's Brief award. His teams have also prevailed in other statewide and national competitions. 

Ms. Maayah and Ms. Snyder have not only distinguished themselves by their performance, they have also brought great distinction to UWLA. 

UWLA also served as the host of this year's event with the support of President Robert Brown. 2021 marked the first time the Traynor was conducted online. The complex logistical planning required to pivot to an online platform for this 10-school, 19-judge event was led by UWLA Adjunct Professor (and Traynor Competition Director) Miriam Billington, in consultation with Dean Jay Frykberg and Professor Jesse Aldava. UWLA students Jacqueline Anderson, Yassi Tehrani, Shushan Yeremyan, Arpi Sislyan and Ani Zakaryan served as courtroom monitors throughout Saturday's preliminary rounds. They effectively and efficiently administered all ten online preliminary arguments to make sure the format worked properly for the participants competing online throughout California.

Thanks to all members of the UWLA community who collaborated on this.

Please use this link to view the official results: https://www.traynormootcourt.org

Please use this link to watch the final round of competition on UWLA’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/clxF_jY1h70