CONGRATULATIONS to Joe Santiesteban ’14 for winning the 2014 McBaine championship! And to Jessica Diaz ’14 (for Petitioner) and Anuradha Sivaram ’14 (for Respondent) for winning the Crowell & Moring Best Brief awards. Please click here for Jessica’s brief and Anuradha’s brief. Click here for more photos from the finals.
Congratulations also to the other competitors in a truly incredible competition:
| For Petitioner United States | For Respondent Nosal |
| B. Jamie Yood (finalist) |
Joe Santiesteban (finalist) |
| Jordan Clark | Aida Ashouri |
| Jessica Diaz* | Brady Blasco* |
| Ashley Eickof* | Samuel Diaz |
| Kevin Kraft | Nathaniel Miller** |
| Alex Li | John Muse-Fisher |
| R. Stuyvie Pyne** | Anuradha Sivaram* |
| Efan Wu | Lauren Smith |
** semifinalist *quarterfinalist
The James Patterson McBaine Honors Competition is Boalt Hall’s moot court competition and is open to all Boalt second- and third-year law students. The Competition format is modeled after U.S. Supreme Court practice. Cases chosen for the competition involve cutting-edge issues of great public importance. This year’s case is US v. Nosal. The case concerns a federal criminal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
For the final round of our 2013-2014 competition, we are proud to welcome President Janet Napolitano, former Governor of Arizona, former Secretary of Homeland Security, and current President of the University of California; California Supreme Court Justice and Berkeley faculty member Goodwin Liu, and Hon. Claudia Wilken, Chief Judge of the Northern District Court of California, and a 1975 Law Building alumna.
The final round of the competition is one of Boalt’s premier appellate advocacy events. All students are welcome to attend and celebrate the achievements of the advocates.
The McBaine competition and Best Brief Award are made possible with generous support from Crowell & Moring LLP.
Competitors are forbidden from using any outside help when writing their briefs and preparing oral arguments. However, the Competition’s Directors host office hours before the brief is due to provide participants an opportunity to discuss the case, brief-writing, and oral argument preparation. Competitors are also welcome to email the Directors at any point in the process with questions or concerns. Bill Fernholz, the Director of Appellate Programs, and Anne Gordon, the Advocacy Fellow, are also available for individual meetings throughout the competition.
- Competition Rules (MUST READ THESE FIRST)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Previous Competition Winners
- Helpful Materials (including award-winning briefs from past years)
- 2013-14 Competition Schedule
- Record (note: MUST read competition rules before reviewing record)
- Side Preference Sheet