The Competition is the preeminent environmental law moot in the United States, testing skills in appellate brief writing and oral advocacy.  The Competition draws in excess of 200 competitors and 175 attorneys who serve as judges for three days of oral arguments in February.  

The legal problem drafted each year involves timely issues of national importance to the practice of environmental law, such as illegal dumping of hazardous waste, vicarious criminal liability of corporate officers for their company's environmental crimes and Commerce Clause limits on water pollution regulation.

Scoring in the preliminary rounds is based on a combination of the brief score and scores from the oral rounds.  Scoring in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds is based solely on oral performance.  

Oral arguments begin with preliminary rounds on Thursday and conclude with the final round on Saturday afternoon.  Each argument will feature three adverse teams.  Judges evaluating the oral arguments include attorneys with environmental law expertise, members of the Pace environmental law faculty and judges from the Nation’s courts. Final round judges will be members of the federal bench and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Appeals Board.

CLE practice credits in New York may be earned per round of judging for attorneys admitted to the bar for more than two years.  Attorneys in states other than New York and Pennsylvania will need to check with their respective state CLE departments to determine if the program will satisfy their home state's CLE requirements.

New York State CLE rules require that newly admitted attorneys (attorneys that have been admitted to the bar less than two years from the Competition date) cannot earn CLE credits for judging moot competitions.

Please refer to the Judge Application form if you are interested in judging the 2007 Competition.