La Verne Law School Team Wins Award

Going into a national competition for law students last weekend, a three-man team from the San Fernando Valley campus of the La Verne College of Law knew they were up against some heavy hitters.

The college came in last in the same National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition last year, its first time in the contest.

But Saturday, at the end of the three-day meet, the team took the top award in the petitioner’s brief writing contest and second in the final round of oral arguments.

The students spent three weeks completing the written brief and preparing an oral argument, which was given by Jeff Beaumont and Sam Ekizian. Their teammate was Raffy Astvasadoorian.

Two judges and a University of San Diego law professor judged the eighth annual event, held in the San Diego County Courthouse.

In five rounds of competition, the students were required to argue the case of a homicide detective who carried a gun while on duty despite having been convicted of a domestic violence charge.

La Verne was up against 17 other law schools, including teams from Pepperdine University; Hastings College of Law, which placed first in the oral argument portion, and the University of Cincinnati, which wrote the top respondent’s brief.