Alice Wanamaker ’25 and Claire McDonald ’26 won the Windy City Regional moot court competition in Chicago, Ill., on Saturday, beating 23 other collegiate teams to win every round. They will advance to preliminary nationals at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Fla., in January. Wanamaker also received an individual orator award as one of the top-scoring speakers in the competition. Wanamaker said that the pair is the first in the history of the College’s moot court team to win a regional competition.
“Moot court is a competition where, in pairs, you simulate arguing a case before the Supreme Court,” Wanamaker, a captain of the team, explained to the Record. “You’re told randomly which side you’ll be on in a given round, and you give oral arguments in front of a fake panel of Supreme Court justices.”
At this weekend’s competition, Wanamaker and McDonald argued a fictional case about religious rights and abortion involving the 14th and 1st Amendments.
“Like in the actual Supreme Court, it’s a hot bench,” McDonald added. “While you’re giving your argument, you have a set amount of time, and the justices will interrupt you and ask you questions.”
Unlike moot court teams at other colleges and universities, which Wanamaker said are often managed by academic departments, the College’s team is student-run. “It’s a very different vibe than the way most schools do moot court,” she said. “I do all of the tournament registration, I book all the flights and hotels, and I get all of our practice schedules together.”
Ten years ago, Andrew Giarolo ’04, who is now an assistant district attorney in Pittsfield, started the team, which he continues to coach today. “He prepared us for questioning well enough that I don’t think I was really shocked by any question,” Wanamaker said.
“Alice and Claire worked so hard and so tirelessly to learn their cases, develop and perfect their arguments, and showcase their brilliance in Chicago,” Giarolo wrote to the Record. “They earned every point to get to that finishing line.”
With only six students competing this year, the moot court team is much smaller than the College’s mock trial team, which has 26 members. Wanamaker and McDonald said that the team’s small size makes it stand out at competitions. “We didn’t travel with a coach,” McDonald said. “We’d show up, and [opposing teams] would have these huge contingent members and their coaches, and then Alice and I would just walk in. It was definitely scrappy, but in a way, that scared people — because we dominated.”
“I love being her partner,” McDonald said of Wanamaker.
“I saw Claire coming in [at an organization meeting] and I saw her arguments, and I was like, ‘This girl is going to be better than me,’ and so I cajoled her into being my partner,” Wanamaker replied.
Wanamaker and McDonald both said they were drawn to moot court as a continuation of activities they enjoyed in high school and as preparation for potential careers in law.
“I did Model UN, and I was like, ‘I know for a fact that this is something I would love and thrive in,’” McDonald said. When she got to the College, McDonald found that moot court filled the same niche.
“I did constitutional law competitions in high school,” Wanamaker added. “When I got [to the College], I knew that I wanted to find whatever con[stitutional] law competition there was on campus and … I became deeply obsessed with it.”
Looking ahead to nationals, they pair said they anticipate competing against a different type of team. “Teams from the South and Mid Atlantic weren’t really represented in the [Chicago] tournament,” Wanamaker said. “They’re good, and … their presentation is very polished. It’s more presentation than the nature of the legal arguments that we have to work on.”
