California Western Students Continue to Thrive in the Competitive Advocacy Program

For well over 50 years, California Western has built a reputation for excellence in competitive advocacy— from the early 1970’s, when students mentored by Professor George Gafford were winning national and international advocacy competitions, to 2024, when students now enter the Gafford Moot Courtroom to participate in intraschool competitions and to prepare to compete against the top law schools in the country—and win. 

The Competitive Advocacy Program (CAP) at California Western was first formed in 2004 by former Director of the San Diego Federal Defenders, Mario Conte. Since 2004, an experienced and diverse pool of local practicing attorneys was cultivated to coach each division of CAP. Almost all coaches are former student advocates and CWSL alumni who wanted to give back to the program and remain a part of it. Advanced Trial & Appellate classes were developed to give our advocates a foundation in these skills before they join a team. The ADR team has perfected its tryout process over the years to assemble top advocates for their competitions. 

In December of 2019, Mario Conte retired, and Paul Parisi took over as Director of CAP. Paul was a Deputy Public Defender in San Diego. He is one of the initial advocacy students that worked with Mario to help create the program and has coached over 15 trial teams since he graduated CWSL, so he has a vested interest in the ongoing success of the program. He has been focused on expanding student excitement and participation in the many advocacy opportunities that California Western has to offer. 

     Regional, National, and International Competition Success

Each year, students in the Competitive Advocacy Program compete throughout the Southern California region, the nation, and the world, continuing the school’s tradition of excellence. In the past few years, all of the teams—Trial, ADR, and Appellate—have amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, adding new awards to the trophy case each time out. 

This month, we would like to highlight the Appellate Teams’ recent successes. Especially since one team recently received some best in the world accolades! All of the students, alumni, and coaches listed below have dedicated countless hours of hard work that have resulted in these accolades for CWSL. 

     Appellate Team Recent Accomplishments: 

Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2024)

• 3rd Best Brief in the World (out of almost 700 law schools from 100 countries)
• 1st Place for Best Brief in Western Regional
• Advanced to Octo-Finals for Oral Arguments 

Advocates: Sarah Becker ’24, Maliat Chowdhury 3L, Ariana D’Agostino ’24, Mariah Mantzke ‘24, & Alexander Gutterud ‘24

Coaches: Professor Emerita Bobbie Thyfault, Professor William Aceves, and Kate Clark ‘10

UC Davis Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition (2024)

• Best Overall Advocate
• 2nd Place Team 

Advocates: Delilah Sadat 3L, Ben Decarlo 3L, Chandler Gietzen 3L

Coaches: Sara Gros-Cloren & Jonathan Kaldas ‘23

Schreck Gaming Law Competition (2024)

• 2nd Place for Best Brief  

Advocates: Anna Gurr 3L and Nicollete Yohn 3L 

Coach: Elijah Gaglio ‘18

UCLA Cybersecurity National Competition (2023)

• 2nd Place for Oral Advocacy 

Advocates: Jonathan Kaldas ‘23 and Brooke Miles ‘23 | Coach: Elijah Gaglio ‘18

Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition (2023)

• Finalist at Regionals
• Semifinalist at Nationals 

Advocates: Sarah Rowe ‘23 and Kassidy Davis ‘23 | Coach: ‘22 Alumnus 

Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2023)

• 2nd Place for Best Brief in Regional Competition 

Advocates: Chelsey Barkley ‘23, Maliat Chowdhury 3L, Alexander Gutterud ‘24, Mariah Mantzke ‘24, & Valerie Sigamani ‘24

Coaches: Professor Emerita Bobbie Thyfault, Professor William Aceves, and Kate Clark ‘10

Thomas Tang National Moot Court Regional Competition (2022) 

• 1st Place, Regional Winner
• 2nd Best Brief awarded 

Advocates: Jonathan Kaldas ‘23 and Brooke Miles ’23 | Coach: Elijah Gaglio ‘18

USD National Criminal Procedure Appellate Tournament (2022)

• 2nd Best Oral Advocate Award 

Advocate: Connor Rathbun ‘23 |  Coaches: Arlena Parmar ‘20 and '16 Alumnus

Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2022) 

• 7th Place for Best Brief in the Nation out of 87 Law Schools
• Advanced to the Final National Round of The Top 32 Law Schools Based on Oral Arguments 

Advocates: Matt Halverson ‘22, Maliat Chowdhury 3L, Justine Berard ‘23, Chelsey Barkley ‘23, & Alexis Garcia ‘23

Coaches: Professor Emerita Bobbie Thyfault, Professor William Aceves, and Kate Clark ‘10

Pepperdine National Entertainment Law Moot Court Competition (2021)

• 1st Place for Best Brief
• 2nd Place for Oral Advocacy
• Best Advocate Award

Advocates: Jonathan Kaldas ‘23, Conner Rathbun ‘23, Mary Powell ‘22 |  Coaches: Ryan Mallein ’17 & Arlena Parmar ‘20

Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition (2021)

• 2nd Place for Best Brief 

Advocates:  Brooke Miles ‘23 and '22 Alumnus |  Coaches: Taylor Fuentes ’18  and Arlena Parmar ‘20

National Online Moot Court Challenge (2021)

• Final Four Team
• Outstanding Advocate Award 

Advocates: Madison Swoy ’22 and Mary Powell ‘22 |  Coaches: Elijah Gaglio ‘18 and Arlena Parmar ‘20

Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2021)

• Advanced to Global Rounds
• 5th Place for Best Brief in Regional Round 

Advocates: Lillian Glenister ‘21, Varun Sabharwal ‘21, Matt Halverson ‘22, Tyler Herrera ‘21, & Valeria Loayza Palomino ‘21

Coaches: Professor Emerita Bobbie Thyfault, Professor William Aceves, and Kate Clark ’10

UC Davis Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition (2020)

• 1st Place for Oral Advocacy
• 1st Place Brief 

Advocates: Arlena Parmar ’20 and Caitlin Van Voorst ‘20 |  Coach: ‘16 Alumnus

Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition (2020)

• 1st Place Brief
• Final Four Team for Oral Advocacy 

Advocates: Danica Hernandez ‘21  and Nathan Chisholm ‘22  |  Coaches: Sahar Karimi ’18 and Caitlin Van Voorst ‘20

In each of these competitions, our students competed against and defeated ranked law schools from across the country, in addition to schools from around the world in The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Jessup is the oldest and largest international moot competition in the world, attracting participants from almost 700 law schools in around 100 countries. The competition has been described as the most prestigious moot court competition in the world. As you can see from the results above, California Western has had consistent success at this highly respected event. 

The most recent Jessup team took things to entirely new level by earning two international awards for their brief writing. They won a Hardy C. Dillard Award for Top 10 overall combined memorial scores: they finished 9th in the world! Even more impressive, they also won a Richard Baxter Award, which is only given to the top 3 individual memorials on each side of the case: their efforts earned them the 3rd Best Respondent Memorial in the world! 

CAP Director Parisi sums it up by saying: “One of my favorite things about The Advocacy Program is that it gives our students and our school an opportunity to go head-to-head against top-tier opponents. Give us that chance, and we will often be the underdog that comes out on top. Every single time we beat out a ranked law school it proves that our teaching methods, alumni coaches, and hard-working students are all able to stack up against the best in the world.” 

We look forward to sharing more advocacy team accomplishments with you next month! In the meantime, for more information about The Advocacy Program or to learn how you can help support our teams, please reach out to our Program Director, Professor Paul Parisi at Pparisi@cwsl.edu.