School of Law Team Reaches Finals of National Appellate Advocacy Competition Regional Round

Third-year University of Arkansas law students Anna Betts and Tim Steadman advanced to the finals of the regional rounds of the American Bar Association's National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 5-7, 2009. In addition to reaching the finals, the team won the fourth-best brief award, and Betts was named as the best advocate in the competition out of 62 competitors.

The NAAC is one of the pre-eminent moot court competitions in the country and is the only appellate advocacy competition sponsored by the American Bar Association. This year, teams from 178 law schools from around the country entered the competition.

The NAAC problem this year involved issues of the limits on the executive's commander-in-chief powers. Steadman argued the standing issue, and Betts argued on the merits of whether congress can direct the executive to bring troops home after previously authorizing the use of force.

Thirty-one teams participated in the regional competition. Each school argued in preliminary rounds the evenings of March 5 and 6, and in one seeding round on the morning of March 7. The top-scoring teams then advanced through two additional single-elimination rounds.

After defeating teams from New Mexico, Pace, and New York Law School, and being ranked as the third-seeded team going into the fifth and final round, Betts and Steadman very narrowly lost the round. The winning teams advanced to the national finals in Chicago, Ill., to be held in April.

Contact:

Andy Albertson, director of communications
School of Law
(479) 575-6111, aalbert@uark.edu