News Article

The Gonzaga University School of Law student moot court team of Alfredo De La Rosa, Nguyen Do & Brent Underwood has been informed that the brief they prepared for a competition has been voted the best brief in the nation.

The national Best Brief award was presented to the Gonzaga team last month in Washington, D.C., before judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The team had finished fifth overall in the western region in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition held Feb. 25, 2005, which focused on trademark and unfair competition. In that regional competition, sponsored by the International Trademark Association, 18 law school teams from across the western United States competed, including teams from the University of California at Berkeley, Brigham Young University, University of California-Davis, the University of San Francisco and the University of Hawaii.

The Gonzaga team was notified in February of this year that it had won “Best Brief” in the Western Regional Competition, marking the second consecutive year a Gonzaga team has won “Best Brief” in that competition, one of four regional contests held nationwide. The Best Brief winners at each of the four regional competitions were submitted to the national Best Brief Competition.

In all regions, more than 70 briefs were submitted from law school teams nationwide. Among the four regional Best Brief winners, Gonzaga was selected by a panel of three judges, all specialists in trademark law. For the national award, Best Briefs are read and scored by three judges. Judges’ scores are combined for an overall score for each brief.

Also taking part in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition was the GU Law student moot court team of Lauren Altdoerffer, Jeff Christensen, Dan Quirk and Kristina Smith, which finished in the middle of the pack.

“Against this strong field, the Gonzaga teams performed well,” said Sheri Engelken, GU Law assistant professor and coach of Gonzaga’s moot court teams. “Both teams demonstrated great poise and professionalism. They were extremely well prepared and delivered strong arguments. All seven students said they didn't hear a single question during the competition that they hadn’t dealt with during practice rounds.”

GU Law's performances were praised by the regional judges, established intellectual property litigators from the San Francisco area. A team from UC-Berkeley finished first in the regional competition with the highest combined brief and oral argument scores.

For more information, contact Laura Mathisen at (509) 323-3698 or via e-mail at lmathisen@lawschool.gonzaga.edu