Familiar Name Once Again Wins Wagner Labor & Employment Law Competition

Perhaps NYLS should rename their competition the NKU Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition.  After all, their law school has been nothing short of dominant.  2014 proved no exception as the team once again outperformed 45 other teams to claim the Wagner national championship on Sunday March 23, 2014.  You can hear the final round argument here.  This year the teams tackled a very challenging and timely problem dealing with whether unpaid interns should really be deemed employees pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and thus paid wages, and also whether the interns should be allowed to band together as both a class action under state law and a collective action under the FLSA.

Obviously, NKU advocates are coached well to astutely answer the challenging questions from this year and past years.  How dominant is NKU at the Wagner competition?  Check out this list of accomplishments:

• 2014 National Champions, Best Preliminary Round Team
• 2013 Best Brief
• 2012 Best Brief
• 2010 National Champions, Best Final-Round Oralist, 3rd Best Petitioner Brief
• 2009 National Finalists
• 2008 National Champion, Best Final-Round Oralist, Best Brief, Best Preliminary Round Team
• 2007 National Finalists, Best Brief
• 2006 National Quarter-Finalists, Best Brief, Best Preliminary Round Team
• 2005 National Finalists, Best Final-Round Oralist
• 2004 National Quarter-Finalists

This year, NKU defeated South Texas College of Law, a team that has also been successful lately.  South Texas is the National Runner-Up for two consecutive years, and also won the best final round oral advocate award for 2014 and a best brief and best preliminary round team award for 2013. 

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion:  the Appalachian School of Law team that I coach also performed very well, advancing to the quarter-finals and winning an award for best octo-finalist team.