2008 Hardt Cup
Intramural Competition

Sponsored by

AN INTRODUCTION

In the fall of 1962, the Law School community was shocked and saddened by the death of A. Lee Hardt, a student who had just completed his first year.  Students in the class of 1964 chose to honor his memory by dedicating a cup in his name to be presented to the winner of the annual first year moot court competition.  Now, each year, in the weeks following Spring Break, the Moot Court Board organizes and conducts the annual Hardt Cup Intramural Competition for 1L students.

For most students, the competition is their first experience with oral argument and moot court competition, as well as an opportunity to develop their oral advocacy skills.  The competition is comprised of three preliminary rounds and one final round all completed within a three-week period.  Participation in the first round of the Hardt Cup is a mandatory component of the Legal Analysis, Research and Writing (LARW) curriculum for all 1L students.  Participation in subsequent rounds, through which students can earn an invitation to join the Moot Court Board, is voluntary, but strongly encouraged.  At the end of the third round, the top finishers will be invited to join the Moot Court Board.  The top eight finishers will continue to argue in the final round to compete for the Hardt Cup trophy.

Appellate advocacy and the moot court program are important elements of the first year legal curriculum.  The ability to organize oral presentations logically and persuasively, as well as the skill of responding to others' concerns and criticisms by thinking on one's feet are both invaluable to law students and law school graduates alike.  Competing in the Hardt Cup is a prime opportunity for students to build skills that will help them not only in future law school courses, but also in the job market and in whatever careers they choose, legal or otherwise.  All students who complete the three preliminary rounds may list participation in the Hardt Cup Competition on their resumes.

The Moot Court Board takes very seriously its member selection process and wishes to make the Hardt Cup competition as fair as possible.  To that end, the Board has implemented policies to govern communication between former and current members of the Moot Court Board and 1Ls, and communication and collaboration amongst competitors themselves.  Competitors are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with both the Policy on Member Communication with 1Ls and the Policy on Competitor Collaboration & Preparation.  After the mandatory Hardt Cup meeting held in the spring, 1Ls will be considered to be on notice as to the provisions contained therein.  In order to maintain the utmost fairness and to avoid any appearances of impropriety, violations of these policies are taken very seriously.  The Hardt Cup Coordinators reserve the right to impose upon any competitor who violates the word or spirit of either policy whatever sanctions it deems appropriate, including disqualification from the competition and referral to the Law School's judicial process.  Any Moot Court Board member who violates the policies would face equally serious sanctions. 

ROUND ONE
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During the first round, competitors will argue the case on which their LARW course appellate briefs are based.  Each competitor will argue twice, once in favor of the brief they wrote ("on-brief") and once in favor of the opposing party ("off-brief").   Competitors will receive copies of opposing briefs prior to the competition to help in preparing their off-brief argument.  Each competitor's oral arguments will be assessed according to the Moot Court Board's oral argument scoring criteria.  The members of each LARW section will argue on a specific night, with students arguing against other members of their class.  Competitors will argue both on-brief and off-brief the same night.  For those who wish not to compete further, completion of Round One is all that is required.

ROUNDS TWO & THREE
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Shortly after completing the first round of competition, competitors will have the opportunity to sign up to compete in Rounds Two and Three, through which they can compete for invitations to join the Moot Court Board.  The Hardt Cup Competition is sponsored by the Moot Court Board and Thompson & Knight, which covers the many costs incurred in conducting the event.

Rounds Two and Three involve entirely new facts, issues, and cases wholly unrelated to the subject matter of any of the LARW section's appellate brief material, and notably, no writing is involved.  Rather, for each round (i.e., once for Round Two and once for Round Three), competitors are provided with a “problem packet” containing a brief statement of the case to be argued and four to six case opinions covering the relevant law.  The Round Two and Round Three problem packets are completely separate and involve distinct facts, issues and cases.  As in Round One, competitors will argue twice in each round, once for the appellant or petitioner (as the case may be) and once for the appellee or respondent.

For each round, problem packets will be made available to competitors at the library circulation desk beginning 24 hours before they are scheduled to argue the case.  The problems are closed research, which means that students do not need and are not permitted to do any outside research beyond what is contained within the problem packet.  As a result, competitors should not need and are discouraged from using the entire 24 hour period to prepare -- trust us, you won’t need all day.  Again, you may NOT do any outside research to prepare for these rounds. You are limited to the materials you receive in your packet.  In addition, you may not discuss the Hardt Cup problems with ANYONE (even non-competitors).

As in the first round, competitors' oral arguments will be scored using the same scoring criteria.  Following the completion of all three rounds, competitors' scores will be tallied. Regardless of the number of competitors in the Hardt Cup after the mandatory round, the top twenty(20) competitors shall be selected for Board membership. In the event of a tie for the twentieth highest score in the final rankings, each competitor sharing the twentieth highest score shall be selected for Board membership. Additionally, the top eight competitors will be invited to compete in the Final Round consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals and the final argument between the top two competitors for the Hardt Cup trophy.

Once a student registers to compete in the 2nd and 3rd rounds he or she is committed to argue in both rounds.  Rounds Two and Three are not elimination rounds, such that in order for each competitor to argue and be scored it is essential that his or her competitor participate as well.  Other students are counting on each and every competitor and the Board cannot accommodate registered participants who wish to withdraw before competing in Rounds Two or Three.

Hardt Cup Sponsorship
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Duke Law School and the Moot Court Board gratefully acknowledged Thompson & Knight, LLP's support for the Hardt Cup Competition.  For three years, Thompson & Knight's sponsorship allowed Duke Law students to participate in this competition free of charge.

Established in 1887, Thompson & Knight today is a dynamic firm of over 400 attorneys, with offices in Texas, New York, Europe, Mexico, North Africa, and South America.  For more information about Thompson & Knight, please visit their web site at www.tklaw.com.