The North Carolina Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Division hosts a statewide high school moot court competition each year. In the competition, the teams are given prior case law and a set of complex facts about a case that has already gone to trial, appealed to the court of appeals, argued before the court of appeals and appealed to the Supreme Court.
The competitors take what has been done and argue their case before the Supreme Court. The competition begins at the county level, the winners advance to regional competition and the winners of the regional advance to state competition in Raleigh. The state competition takes place at the North Carolina State Supreme Court and competitors argue before our Supreme Court Justices.
This is the first year Rowan County schools have been involved in the competition. Rowan County’s competition took place on the evening of March 4 at the Rowan County Courthouse. After speaking with the local high schools, two teams from East Rowan ó comprised of Lydia Adkins and Mark Meredith, both seniors, on the first team and Ben Braziel and Joe Scrip, both sophomores, on the second ó participated in the competition.
Several local attorneys volunteered their time to help with the competition. Doug Smith, John Basinger and Jon Overbey served as judges to the competition, and Michelle Walker, Marcus Wilson and Sally Waters came out to support the local high school students. Mike Adkins served as a coach to the Adkins/Meredith team. Peter Smith, Rowan County’s Judicial District Representative to the NCBA’s Young Lawyer Division, organized the competition. Brandi Weathers of the Youth Services Bureau helped set up the competition, Chad Mitchell a teacher at East Rowan helped organize the teams and Sgt. Robert Price and Dep. Ryan Walker of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office set up security at the courthouse.
The Lydia Adkins and Mark Meredith team will advance to the Western Regional Competition, scheduled at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in Charlotte on April 5.
For more information on the competition, contact Peter Smith at 704-636-2974.