Congratulations to Participants in the Fall 2022 Phelps Dunbar First-Year Appellate Advocacy Competition

Congratulations to the participants in, and the winners of, the Fall 2022 Phelps Dunbar First-Year Appellate Advocacy Competition.  The first-year appellate advocacy competition is the capstone event at the end of Stetson’s R&W II courses.  All R&W II students had completed an appellate brief and presented an oral argument, and the top six students (three from each section) were selected to participate in the competition.  The competition was held last night on Zoom. 

Please join me in congratulating ALL of these students for their hard work and extraordinary performances. 

Participants and Round Winners:

Round 1:          Gabby Zapun (round winner) v. Nicole Janicki

Round 2:          Jacob Kesler v. Caitlin Carey (round winner)

Round 3:          Jordan Gotay (round winner) v. Colin Sullivan

Best Oralist (a tie):                       Gabby Zapun and Jordan Gotay
Runner-up Best Oralist:               Colin Sullivan

The students dusted off their oral argument notes and participated in this competition after finishing their final exams last week.  The attorneys from Phelps Dunbar asked many thoughtful questions involving the limits of the exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. The students remained poised and calm.  They were prepared—citing a lot of law and facts to support their arguments.  The attorneys were impressed with all of the arguments.

We would like to thank Phelps Dunbar for sponsoring the competition again this year!  We are extremely grateful for Phelps Dunbar’s continual support over all these years.  A very special thank you goes out to the attorneys from Phelps Dunbar who served as judges:  Raquel Ramirez Jefferson (Chief Judge), Caroline Spradlin, and Brennah Toomey.

Congratulations to the participants, and thank you to law firm of Phelps Dunbar and to our judges.

Happy Holidays!

Professor Bowman

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