W&L Law Students Win National Uvaldo Herrera Moot Court Competition
Tamra Harris, Rosy Baeza and Maressa Cuenca, far right.The Washington and Lee School of Law team of Rosy Baeza, Tamra Harris, and Maressa Cuenca was named National Champions at the Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition conducted by the Hispanic National Bar Association.
The team, all third-year law students and members of the school’s Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA), competed against teams from 30 other law schools. In addition to their overall victory, Tamra Harris was named first place oralist in the preliminary rounds of the competition. This is the first time W&L has sent a team to this competition.
The law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher wrote the competition problem, which focused on whether the ruling in Johnson v. United States invalidating the Armed Career Criminal Act’s residual clause as unconstitutionally vague also applied to the identically worded residual clause in the United States Sentencing Guidelines with retroactive effect.
Professors Tim MacDonnell and Dan Evans coached the students in preparation for the competition, and Professors J.D. King and Jon Shapiro provided guidance on the sentencing issue that served as the subject of the competition.
The competition took place at the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami. The judges of the final round included Albert Diaz of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Eva Guzman of the Supreme Court of Texas, and Adalberto Jordan of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
In winning the competition, the students brought home a $14,000 scholarship award for the school.
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