Law Students Provide Moot Court Experience to High Schoolers

New Haven public high school students competed in local and national moot court competitions this year through Yale Law School’s Marshall-Brennan program. 

About two dozen students competed locally at Yale Law School, with current law students serving as judges. Following the local competition, four students from James Hillhouse High School and Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School went to the national competition in Louisiana.

The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project connects law students from about 20 law schools nationwide with public high school students to teach constitutional law and oral advocacy. The program centers on teaching a moot court problem that typically examines students’ constitutional rights in school settings, particularly the balance between First and Fourth Amendment protections and schools’ authority to maintain order.

The high school students learn to analyze Supreme Court cases, write legal briefs, and present oral arguments like appellate lawyers. The Yale Law School teams include Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law Justin Driver, student directors Henry Wu ’25 and Sharon Nunn ’25, and fellows Mariah Smith ’26, Kishore Chundi ’26, Emma Gray ’26, and Jeremy Thomas ’26. The fellows taught students from Hillhouse and Co-Op high schools multiple times per week during the fall and spring terms.

“Marshall-Brennan offers a crucial opportunity to teach and learn from New Haven students, who have keen insights into constitutional law from their own studies and personal experiences,” Chundi said. “Watching hesitant students blossom into confident and eloquent oral advocates and engaging with students’ brilliant commentary on Court opinions was one of the most impactful experiences I’ve had at YLS.”

The local New Haven competition took place at Yale Law School in the spring, where about 20 law students helped judge the event.

“It’s always wonderful to have an opportunity to interact with younger students, particularly on a law-related topic. Their excitement and fresh ideas were contagious, especially for law students who spend so much time ‘in the weeds.’ Plus, it is always great to have a chance to be more involved in the New Haven community,” student judge Mary Szarkowicz ’25 said.

Four New Haven students — Cayla Stanton and Kemaya Richardson-Francis of Co-Op, and Luca Rivera and Jayona Salmond of Hillhouse — represented their high schools and Yale Law School at the National Moot Court Competition in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on March 14–15. The event was hosted by Southern University Law Center, and high school students from across the country participated. 

This year’s problem examined whether a school violated a student’s First Amendment rights by suspending her for political speech made on social media off campus.  

Luca Rivera, of Hillhouse, received the Thomas “Tommy” Bloom Raskin Young Activist Award at the national competition, which recognizes outstanding leadership and community service.

“Going forward, something that I have learned and will take with me is that arguing a case well is more about your presentation of the facts than it is about the facts themselves,” Rivera said. “In order to be a good lawyer, and to serve your client to the best of your ability, it is of the utmost importance that you learn how to work a room, how to present yourself, how to be precise, poised, calm, and controlled. But most of all what I learned is that being a lawyer requires determination; it is a work that takes humility and an open heart, always seeking justice.”

Nunn and Wu are handing the leadership of the program to Smith and Chundi, who hope to expand the program this upcoming year to an additional high school and to hire additional fellows.

“YLS is full of folks who are passionate about youth issues, many of whom have teaching experience. And civics and oral advocacy opportunities are often lacking in schools across the country and in New Haven. Given the need and the abundance of people that can meet it, expansion is the natural next step for the program,” Chundi said.