Congratulations on a Double Double!

Congratulations to the Orseck Moot Court team—Tyler Brown, Thomas Fuhrman, and Hannah Klonowski—on their performance at the Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition this week.

Before explaining the “double double” in the title, a little more information is needed about this competition.

The competition takes place at The Florida Bar conference. And because of that, actual sitting judges from the circuit courts and the district courts of appeal join with attorneys to judge the preliminary, quarterfinal, and semifinal rounds. And if a team advances to the final round, the advocates get an opportunity to argue in front of the justices of the Florida Supreme Court. (Something that very few Florida attorneys ever have an opportunity to do.) Side note here: In the 28 years that Stetson has participated in the competition, a Stetson team has been in the finals 19 times.

Now back to the “double double” in the title: 

Last year, the Stetson Orseck team of Lauren Beames, Liz Kellar, and Jessica Merker not only won the competition, but Jessica won both the Best Oralist, Preliminary Rounds award and the Best Oralist, Final Round award. (A Stetson first!)

And what did the Stetson team do this year?

The Stetson team not only WON the competition (hence the first “double”—back-to-back champions with Tyler and Hannah arguing in the final round), but Hannah repeated what Jessica did by winning the Best Oralist, Preliminary Rounds award and the Best Oralist, Final Round award (the second “double”).

Congratulations, Tyler, Thomas, and Hannah! The applause after Tyler finished the rebuttal was quite loud; the team was amazing.

Go Stetson!

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