Purcellville Honors Championship Moot Court Team

March 11th, 2010

By David Halbrook

CONTACT:

David Halbrook Patrick Henry College (540) 441-8722 OfficeOfCommunications@phc.edu

Purcellville mayor Bob Lazaro (L) and PHC moot court coach Dr. Frank Guliuzza

For the second consecutive year, the Purcellville Town Council honored the College’s national championship legal debate team at its March 9 meeting. With moot court coach and PHC Chancellor Michael Farris absent, along with several team members, due to prior commitments and class conflicts, moot coach Dr. Frank Guliuzza accepted the council’s congratulations with his own grateful words of thanks.

“I know I am speaking for our chancellor and the entire team in saying we are very proud to represent Purcellville in these successes,” he said. “The community has been very good to our College, and to my family in particular since I moved here to teach, and our entire campus sends its heartfelt thanks in return.”

For the fourth time in six years, Patrick Henry College brought home the ACMA National Moot Court Championship on January 16 at the Florida International University College of Law in Miami, Florida. The team of Rachel Heflin and Jenna Lorence beat a team from Baylor University, giving Heflin back-to-back titles and making her the tournament’s only two-time champion. Heflin won last year’s 2009 ACMA (American Collegiate Moot Court Association) National Championship with partner Aidan Grano. Last year’s national third-place team of PHC students James Mieding and Robert Kelly also captured 2010’s third place trophy.

Town council member shakes the hand of moot court team member Levi Swank

“The Town is so very proud of the hard work of the students at Patrick Henry College to bring home yet another Moot Court National Championship," said Purcellville Mayor Bob Lazaro, as he passed out attractive certificates and pins to the assembled team members. "Patrick Henry College is an important asset to our Town and we look forward to working with the College as they implement their strategic vision for the future."

To date, no other college or university has won more than one ACMA national championship. Among the other teams competing in Miami were Harvard and Syracuse University, Holy Cross, the College of Wooster (2008 ACMA Champion), and Fitchburg State College. In all, PHC sent the maximum number of eight teams to the 64-team competition and placed first, third, ninth, 11th, 13th and 17th.