Wayne State University Law School students Candice Coats and Arius Webb have been selected to compete in the American Bar Association Media Law Diversity Moot Court Competition semifinals.
The third-year students formed a two-member competition team that is one of the top four teams in the nation selected for the semifinals based on a brief they researched, wrote and submitted. All competitors wrote briefs on the same topic. The semifinals will be Feb. 5, 6 and 7 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"The brief is about whether the First Amendment grants a privilege to reporters that allows them to refuse to reveal their confidential sources during civil trials," Webb said.
Both Coats and Webb said they each spent about 60 hours preparing their brief time put in on top of their regular course work.
"All four of the semifinal teams get a paid trip to Arizona in February to compete against each other," said Amy Neville, who is the faculty advisor to the law school's moot court program and the one who told the students about the competition. The competition is open to individuals and isn't part of Wayne Law's regular moot court program schedule.
Finding out they placed so high was a thrill for Coats and Webb, who are looking forward to the ABA Forum on Communications Law, during which the moot court competition will take place. The students will have time to attend some of the forum events and workshops, as well.
Both Webb, a Harper Woods resident, and Coats, who lives in Livonia, participated in Wayne Law's moot court program last year, and both plan to be transactional attorneys after they graduate in the spring.
The students chose Wayne for law school because it's in Detroit and because of its strong alumni base.
"I knew that having such a strong alumni presence in the state could not only help me land a good job post-graduation, but would also open the door to some great mentors," said Coats, who has a master's degree in business administration from Syracuse University and bachelor's degree in applied engineering science from Michigan State University. Webb has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Wayne State.
Published: Wed, Dec 17, 2014
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