King Hall Hosts National Asylum & Refugee Law Moot Court Competition

UC Davis School of Law hosted the 5th annual National Asylum & Refugee Law Moot Court Competition on February 4-5.  Twenty-one teams from top law schools throughout the nation took part in competitions at King Hall and at the Federal District Courthouse in Sacramento in the only immigration law moot court competition on the west coast and the only moot court competition in the nation devoted exclusively to asylum and refugee law.  

Judges for early rounds included immigration practitioners from throughout Northern California and King Hall's Senior Assistant Dean Hollis Kulwin, Professors Leticia Saucedo, Clayton Tanaka, Lawrence Green, Amagda Pérez, and Angelo DeSantis, as well as Lecturer Holly Cooper, Director of Academic Success Chris Ide-Don, and Associate Director of Admission and Outreach Kristen Mercado. Lecturer Raha Jorjani assisted in writing the competition problem.

Serving as judges for the final round were Judge William B. Shubb of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, Judge Robert Yeargin of the San Francisco branch of the Executive Office of Immigration Review (appearing in his personal capacity), and Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso, former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. In the final competition, UC Hastings prevailed in a close matchup against Campbell University.

The UC Davis Moot Court Board wishes to thank Judge Shubb for working to provide the competition with access to the Federal District Courthouse, as well as Dean Kevin Johnson, the entire King Hall faculty, and the volunteers and competitors in this year's event.