Winning The National Princeton Moot Court Tournament

What is the National Princeton Moot Court Tournament?

The National Princeton Moot Court Tournament is an annual event for pretrialers from schools all around America. It is run and hosted by Princeton students and staff members. Around 50 selected teams compete each year in a bracket model using their pretrial skills on a case that they have been prepping for the past month prior to the competition. Teams consist of two people. First, each team must pass the preliminary rounds, which involve four rounds against randomly selected teams. After that, the teams that make it past preliminary rounds will compete against others that made it as well. This goes on for 3 rounds until there are two teams remaining. These two teams will compete in the final round to win the tournament overall.

One really cool thing about the tournament is that starting from the semi-finals, the judges shift from Princeton students to real legal counsel and district attorneys. On top of that, in the final round, judges who have presided over famous cases such as the Apple vs. Epic Trial and the Watergate trials all preside over the final round and ask both teams questions to try and poke holes in their arguments. This tournament is one of the most prestigious tournaments in both High School Pretrial and Mock Trial.

The 2022 National Princeton Moot Court Tournament

Going into the 2022 Princeton Moot Court Tournament, we (Hillsdale High School) had been invited by referral from a victory at a prior competition, and it was our first time preparing and competing for the tournament. When we received the case packet, we had no idea where to start. The packet was the size of a full volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, and this was our first time working with something so large and dense. We decided to take it step by step with our preparation and began extracting the important information from the packet and gathering the things we needed for the tournament. Preparation was hard but very helpful. Our school was sending 2 teams to the tournament, so as a group of four, it was easier to understand and fully comprehend the material.

On the day of the tournament, we did not expect much. It was our first time competing at a tournament this prestigious, so we didn't expect anything big. In our first round, we were confident, and we started to pick up momentum. Once we had finished our first four rounds, we had an idea that we would break to elimination rounds, but we weren't completely sure. Fortunately, we did, winning all four of our preliminary rounds by a solid margin.

Next was our elimination rounds; each was tough, but surprisingly, we managed to break to semi-finals. This was when we really believed we had a shot at winning. Semi-finals were difficult likewise; we were being judged by both legal counsel and district attorneys; however, we powered through them. Unfortunately, our senior partner team from our school, who had been competing alongside us the whole time, lost at the semi-final round. This meant it would be just me and my partner in the final round.

The final round was difficult; judges from famous court cases such as the Apple vs. Epic case and the Watergate trials and more presided over the round. It was tough, to say the least. Our competitors, in addition, were experienced and well-versed and put up a good fight.

After an hour of long arguments and difficult questions, we found ourselves at the award ceremony. I remember being on the edge of my seat as they announced the winners of the tournament. Our names were up there. We had won by one point. All I can remember was being shocked in that moment. I couldn't believe we had won such a prestigious National Mock Trial Tournament. It was truly incredible to see how our hard work paid off.