Congratulations to Phelps Dunbar First-Year Appellate Advocacy Competition Participants!
Congratulations to the participants in, and the winners of, the Fall 2024 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 four students (two from each section) were selected to participate. The competition was held last night in the Smith Courtroom at the Tampa Law Center.
Please join me in congratulating ALL of these students for their hard work and extraordinary performances.
Participants and Round Winners:
- Round 1: Jacob Rykiel (round winner) v. Jonathan Vanderhorst
- Round 2: Allayna Rajkumar v. Gary Denbigh (round winner)
- Best Oralist: Jacob Rykiel
The students dusted off their oral argument notes and participated in this competition two months after doing their oral arguments for class. The attorneys from Phelps Dunbar asked many thoughtful questions about whether a university violated a professor’s First Amendment rights when the university fired her for statements she made on her blog. The students remained poised and calm. They were prepared—citing a lot of law and facts to support their arguments. They handled several hypotheticals and answered questions about policy. Attorneys commented on how impressed they were with the students’ knowledge and how the students performed better than many seasoned attorneys.
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 (more than 25 years). A very special thank you goes out to the attorneys from Phelps Dunbar who served as judges: Mallory Thomas (Chief Judge), Chris Bach, Evan Dahdah, and Austin Laurienzo.
Congratulations to the participants, and thank you to law firm of Phelps Dunbar and to our judges.
Congratulations!
Professor Bowman