How are the oral arguments organized?
After the competitors submit their briefs, the oral advocacy portion of the competition will begin. Each competitor will pair up with a student who wrote a brief for the other issue in the case. Competitors may choose a specific partner or ask the Moot Court Board to assign them a partner. During the oral advocacy portion of the competition, each two-student team will deliver four oral arguments. During each round of argument, each competitor will only argue for the issue that he or she briefed. For round one and three of the arguments, each team will argue for whichever side (petitioner or respondent) that their brief was written. However, for round two and four, each team will argue for the opposing side. Panels of two to four judges drawn from the law school faculty, the Moot Court Society’s Order of Barristers, and the Indianapolis legal community will preside over the oral arguments. The judges will score each competitor individually. Judges will focus as heavily on the competitor
