Trevin Crider is the champion of this year’s Case Western Reserve University School of Law Dean Dunmore Moot Court Competition! Twenty-nine students competed in the intramural appellate-advocacy tournament named for Thomas Dunmore, who served as the School of Law’s dean from 1910 to 1945. Second-year law students enrolled in Legal Writing, Leadership, Experiential Learning, Advocacy and Professionalism (“LLEAP”) 3-Appellate Practice in the fall semester competed in the NCAA bracket-style tournament in the spring. This year, the competition was also open to all second- and third-year students for the first time.
Faculty members, judges and practitioners judged six rounds of appellate arguments culminating in the finals on April 13. In the championship round, Trevin Crider and Yuqi Sun argued before Judge Stephanie Thacker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Justice Michael Donnelly of the Ohio Supreme Court and 2015 Dunmore champion Karey Werner. The judges voted Crider the winner.
In addition to arguing in the finals, Sun won the Best Brief Award. Nathaniel Sommers won the Best Oral Advocate Award for the highest oral scores in the preliminary rounds, and Brianna Schmidt won the Dean Dunmore Award for the highest oral scores in the competition rounds.
Professor Melissa Ghrist, who teaches LLEAP 3-Appellate Practice, wrote this year’s problem. She also organized the 2024 competition with Anna Stroinski, Program Manager of Experiential Opportunities, and third-year law students Kory Roth and Spencer Luckwitz. Laura McNally, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Director of the Milton and Charlotte Kramer Law Clinic, oversaw the competition. Students who argued in the Dunmore tournament are eligible in their third year to try out for moot court teams and take the Appellate Litigation Clinic taught by Professor Andrew Pollis.