Florida State Moot Court team wins national advocacy competition

The Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team has won the 2010 Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition. This year’s competition was held Feb. 5 in Washington, D.C., at George Washington University Law School. This is the second time in the four-year history of the competition that Florida State has won first place.

The winning team members were third-year law students Ana Barton, from Miami, and Steve Muscatello, from Boston. Tallahassee attorney Arthur Stern was their coach.

“We are all very proud of our Moot Court Team’s victory,” said College of Law Dean Don Weidner. “This continues a tradition of extraordinary success.”

The Florida State University team defeated teams from the University of Minnesota in the semifinal round and Duke University in the final round. Other law schools competing in the field of 18 teams included Boston College, Brigham Young University, George Mason University, George Washington University, the University of Arizona and the University of Iowa. Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Milan Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit judged the final round of competition.