Jessup Team Shines at World Championship Rounds

2023 Jessup Court Team
From left to right: Brianna Schmidt, Elise Manchester, William Baker, Sydney Warinner and Ellen Buerk

After winning the Midwest regional in February (as well as the Best Brief Award and Best Oralist Awards), the law school’s Jessup International Law Moot Court team competed at the World Championships from April 8-15 in Washington, DC. The CWRU team (3L Sydney Warinner, 2L Elise Manchester, 2L Will Baker, 1L Brianna Schmidt and 1L Ellen Buerk) went undefeated in the World Championship preliminary rounds, beating China, Ukraine, Ghana and Jamaica.

Although they did not win their elimination round, based on their briefs and preliminary round oral scores, the CWRU team ended up being ranked second in the world out of hundreds of prestigious universities that competed in Jessup this year. In addition, for the second year in a row, Elise Manchester won the world’s Best Speaker Award, an unprecedented feat. Sydney Warinner was ranked 13th best, Brianna Schmidt was ranked 29th best, and will Baker was ranked 53rd best oralist in the world. What's more, the CWRU team won the award for the third best brief in the world-wide competition.

Congratulations to the Jessup team for their impressive accomplishments this year.