×

ADVOCACY COMPETITION TEAM TRYOUT AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION

The Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy is committed to upholding Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s mission throughout all of its programming, including within and among our advocacy competition teams.  We welcome students from all backgrounds and perspectives.  We value diversity in team composition.  We continually strive to maintain a culture and climate free of racism and bias in every aspect of our tryout processes, team instruction, advocate training and competitions.

This spring, Loyola will begin to hold tryouts for our 2023-2024 advocacy competition teams. Students may tryout/apply for as many teams as they are interested in, but may only accept a position on one team per academic year.  

For mock trial teams, students will submit a resume and fill out an application where they can specify an interest in any mock trial team(s). Students then attend one in-person tryout on campus where they can be considered for all available mock trial teams. Students may be asked to return for an in-person call back tryout on campus and/or a virtual interview.  

For moot court teams, students will fill out an application, submit a resume and brief, and list any moot court team(s) of their preference. Students attend one in-person tryout on campus where they can be considered for all available moot court teams. Weekend JD students who wish to be considered exclusively for the newly created Weekend JD competition team will attend one virtual real-time tryout instead of the in-person tryout.

For dispute resolution teams, there will be separate tryouts for the client counseling team, the mediation team, the negotiation teams, and the Vis Moot arbitration team.

Details on tryouts for each group are below and this announcement will be updated as information changes or further information becomes available.

Remember, students are only authorized to compete on teams that are formally recognized and run by Loyola.  Students may not attempt to enter competitions on their own if they are not selected for one of Loyola’s teams.

Students are only permitted to accept an offer to compete on one advocacy team per academic year.  Accordingly, a student cannot be a member of a moot court and mock trial team or dispute resolution team during the same semester or academic year.

All competition teams are associated with a credited course, however, you will not be able to register for the applicable course until you accept an offer to compete on a team.  In general, all competition teams hold practices in the evenings and on weekends with coaches who are practicing attorneys.  Accordingly, team practice dates and times vary per team and per semester. 

For more information about any of the competition teams, advocacy courses or the advocacy certificate, contact Zelda Harris (zharris@luc.edu), Adrienne Mebane (amebane@luc.edu) or Gina Gerardi (ggerardi@luc.edu) in the Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy.

General Informational Session

If you are interested in a general overview of our advocacy competition team programming in terms what teams we have, how they are different, etc, please consider attending our All-Advocacy General Informational Session to learn more:

  • Wednesday, March 15th, 9:00 a.m. at Loyola, Room 1040 

Please note this program will be recorded and made available to students who are interested and unable to attend. 

Mock Trial Tryouts

Info sessions: we 

A recording of at least one of the informational sessions will be made available soon after the last informational session has taken place.

Tryout Sign up: Visit and add the TWEN page entitled "2023-2024 Loyola Mock Trial Tryouts." This page will contain detailed instructions for trying out. The virtual portion of tryouts (interviews) will take place using Zoom video-conferencing.

Application: The application and tryout problem will be available on the “2023-2024 Loyola Mock Trial Tryouts” TWEN page.

Deadline:  Your application and resume are due on TWEN by Monday, April 10th at 10:00 a.m.

Tryout Date(s) and Time(s):

The first round of tryouts will be held on Tuesday, April 11th between 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. in-person at the law school. You will sign-up for a 5 minute tryout time slot on TWEN.  The tryout will consist of you cross-examining a witness, based on the tryout problem.  You will also be asked to perform a closing argument. 

Call-backs will be held on Thursday, April 13th between 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. in-person at the law school and you will be assigned a five minute time slot beforehand.  

Final personal interviews for individual teams will be held in the late afternoon into the evening over Zoom on Friday, April 14th. Again, you will be assigned a time slot beforehand. Interviews can last between 15 and 30 minutes.

Other information: Loyola has four mock trial teams. Coaches from all four teams participate in the try-out process. Room assignments/Zoom links will be confirmed/provided to participating students via email through TWEN the day of tryouts/callbacks/interviews.  

For more information about Mock Trial, you may email the current Executive Director of the Mock Trial Board, Ian Lindsay, at Law-MockTrial@luc.edu. 

Further details about the Mock Trial Program can be found here.

Moot Court Tryouts

Info sessions:   

A recording of at least one of the informational sessions will be made available soon after the last informational session has taken place.

Tryout Sign up: Visit and add the TWEN page entitled "Moot Court Tryouts 2023." This page will contain detailed instructions for trying out. Sign-up for a time slot under the “Sign-Up Sheets” tab. 

Application: The application will be available through the TWEN page. Detailed instructions on when and how to submit your application, resume, and brief are provided therein. 

Deadlines: Your application and resume are due on TWEN by Monday, April 17th at 11:59pm. Your brief is due on TWEN by Friday, May 12th at 11:59pm.

Tryout Date(s) and Time(s): 

  • Friday, April 21st, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Loyola
  • Saturday, April 22nd, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Loyola
  • Sunday, April 23rd, from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Loyola

If you are trying out for the Weekend JD moot court team only, your Tryout Date and Time(s) is as follows:

Saturday, April 22nd, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. via Zoom

You can sign-up for a tryout date and one 15 minute time slot on TWEN.

Other information: To tryout, students use the brief written for their most recent Legal Writing course (depending on whether you are a 1L or 2L) and use the oral argument that corresponds with that brief. Students attend one tryout where they will present their oral argument before the Moot Court Executive Board who will be acting as judges. A short interview will take place with the Board after the oral argument. Those students exclusively trying out for the Weekend JD competition team will have a virtual tryout over Zoom video-conferencing. Room Assignments/Zoom links will be confirmed/provided to participating students via email through TWEN the week of tryouts. If you have any questions, please email MootCourt@luc.edu.

In addition to attending team practices, all students competing on a Moot Court team, with the exception of the Weekend JD competition team, will be required to take the Appellate Advocacy Honors course throughout the academic year. The course is scheduled for Wednesdays from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. 

Students selected for the Weekend JD competition team will be required to take their Appellate Advocacy Honors course in the spring semester only, which will meet during on-campus weekend classes (currently and tentatively scheduled for Sundays from 2:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.). Students on the team will also be required to attend team practices as set forth by the team coaches.

More information about the Moot Court Program can be found here.

Dispute Resolution Tryouts

Client Counseling, Mediation, and Negotiation Teams

Info sessions: TBA, fall 2023

Tryout Date(s) and Time(s): TBA, fall 2023 

The Client Counseling team, the Mediation Team, and the Negotiation Teams will be holding tryouts to field their 2023-2024 teams in the fall of 2023. Informational sessions will be held early in the fall semester, before tryouts for these teams begin.

More information about Dispute Resolution Teams can be found on the Dispute Resolution Competition Teams page and the Dispute Resolution Program's Events and Competitions page.

You may view the 2022 Dispute Resolution Team General Informational Sessions here: https://luc.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=92cbc37e-5cfa-493c-ba8b-af0201334aca  

*You will need your Loyola UVID and password to access the videos.

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the Director of our Dispute Resolution Program, Professor Teresa Frisbie at tfrisbie@luc.edu.

International Commercial Arbitration and the CISG (Vis Moot Class) – Permission of Professor Required

Info sessions: 

A recording of the informational session will be made available soon after the informational session has completed. 

Students who would like to participate in the 2023-2024 Vis Moot Program, with oral argument in the spring semester traditionally held in Vienna or Hong Kong, must take International Commercial Arbitration and the CISG in the fall of 2023. Sixteen students will be admitted to the course. At the end of the semester, eight will be chosen to be Vis Moot Fellows. Four Vis Moot Fellows will be on the Vienna team and four will be on the Hong Kong team. Teams will travel in the spring 2024 for competition.  

Deadline:  To be considered for the class, you need to email a statement of interest and a resume to Professor Margaret Moses at mmoses1@luc.edu by Monday, April 24th.

Because the final decision as to admission will not be made until sometime in May, you need to register for a full course load, but be prepared to drop a course if you are selected for admission to the arbitration class.

You cannot take this class if you are A CORBOY FELLOW OR IF YOU ARE on a mock trial team or on a moot court team that competes in EITHER the fall semester OR THE SPRING SEMESTER.