Mar 15, 2005 -- February was an extremely successful month for Cardozo’s moot court, as second-year students Rachel Lubert and Rebecca Hagenson of the Moot Court Honor Society won Vanderbilt University’s prestigious National First Amendment Moot Court Competition and Jeremy Sussman and Andrew Pak, also 2Ls, took top honors at George Mason University’s Henry G. Manne Moot Court Competition for Law & Economics. “This has been a very successful year for moot court and we are just happy to be able to contribute and represent the school as Cardozo deserves,” Lubert said. The victory at the 15th annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition was described as “bittersweet.” Lubert and Hagenson had to not only overcome 35 other teams from law schools around the country, but also the death of their friend and team editor, Liza Suckle, who passed away only days before the competition. “We really had no expectation of success, only the hope to honor Liza’s memory,” Lubert said. “We competed for her and hope only that we made her proud.” The team, who also won runner-up best brief, argued a hypothetical First Amendment case that presented the issue of whether school officials could punish a student for a drawing depicting violence. They were required to argue both sides of the case: for the petitioner in the final-round and for the respondent in the semifinals. Arguing in front of judges from the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and the Hon. A.A. Birch of the Tennessee Supreme Court, was humbling but also enjoyable. “We work so hard in preparation and it is so difficult to put yourself out there in competition, that just by doing it you’ve generally satisfied your expectations,” Lubert said. The Sussman and Pak team, who took first place, certainly went above and beyond their expectations at the Henry G. Manne Moot Court Competition for Law & Economics. Held at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, steps from the White House, the team had to analyze the legal and economic implications of a complex, antitrust price fixing problem. According to Sussman, the competition challenged them to learn basic economic theory and antitrust law, a class neither have taken yet, and apply it to a question with no obvious answer. Pak, who also won best oralist, said that although the competition is only in its third year, “I have no doubt it will become an important competition in years to come.” A highlight of the competition was the opportunity to argue in front of high-profile judges, including the Hon. Pauline Newman, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; the Hon. Adrian Duplantier, US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana; as well as Henry G. Manne, founder of the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University and for whom the competition is named.