Alexandria, Va.— The University of Florida School of Law won the 25th Annual Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, held March 4-6 in New York. The competition is co-sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute and St. John’s University School of Law. The University of Miami School of Law took second place in the competition. Third place honors were shared by teams from Baylor Law School and SMU Dedman School of Law. Baylor also won for the Best Brief. Alexander Cohen, a student from SMU, won the Best Advocate award.
The competition consists of eight rounds of oral arguments, and the final rounds are held at the Duberstein Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y. Many of the teams are coached by ABI practitioners or academic members, and nearly 200 lawyers and federal judges donated their time and expertise to help judge the event. The fact pattern for the competition focused on two key developments stemming from chapter 11 caselaw. The first issue looked at whether an appellate court has the authority to decline to hear an appeal from a bankruptcy court order confirming a chapter 11 plan on prudential grounds using equitable mootness principles. The second issue focused on whether a chapter 11 reorganization plan can permanently enjoin claims that nonconsenting creditors have against a non-debtor when the claims are not derivative of the debtor’s claims against the non-debtor and no provision is made for full payment of the enjoined claims.
The Duberstein Competition, named for the late Judge Conrad B. Duberstein, a St. John’s alumnus and former ABI director, has grown into the largest appellate moot court competition in the nation. ABI’s Endowment Fund awarded $12,000 in cash prizes for the winners during the final night gala dinner on March 6, which was attended by more than 800 members of the New York restructuring community.
For more information on ABI's Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, please go to http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/academics/llm/duberstein…;
###
ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 12,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abi.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abi.org/calendar-of-events.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017