Coach Catholic Law School Employment Law Moot Court Team

One thing I noticed while assiting a very motivated law school moot court team was that students of the law must be adept at the tricks of the trade before competing. A certain trick encountered when presenting an oral argument is a judge changing the debate with a seemingly inocuous question. Much like practice, an appellate judge may attempt to lead the unsuspecting appellate lawyer astray from their argument by smiling and asking a very simple question off the direct line of cases presented. Likely, the judge is doing so in order to refute the argument of the appellant or appellee. So, to be forewarned and what was provided as a "pearl of wisdom" to the team is to listen to the question and not automatically agree with a seemingly off scripted one, as it usually is a set up, and will likely make you fall prey to the zinger statement after several more questions by the judge of, "so this means your entire argument is without merit." I tried to instill in the students that the road to unravelling your legal position is done in little, seeimingly harmless steps.