TALLAHASSEE — For the second year in a row, the Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team won first place in the UCLA School of Law Cybersecurity Moot Court Competition, which took place virtually on March 12. 

Twenty-two law school teams participated in the competition, including teams from the University of California, Berkeley; Georgetown University; George Washington University; and Emory University. Florida State competed against New York University in the final round.

Judges for the final round were the Honorable Wesley Hsu, of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California; Tracy Wilkison, acting United States attorney for the Central District of California; and Garett Gorlitsky, a former deputy attorney general for California.

Winning team members are third-year law students Jackson “Jack” Boudet, from Winter Park, Fla., and Nicholas “Niko” Athanas, from Marietta, Ga. The team was coached to victory by FSU Law alumni Michael Kaney (’18), who practices at Baker Donelson in Orlando, and Ben Taylor (’19), who practices at Latham, Luna, Eden & Beaudine, LLP, in Orlando. In addition to winning the national competition, the team won the Best Brief Award.

“We are so proud of our student advocates and thankful for the efforts of their coaches,” said Dean Erin O’Connor. “This national win is especially impressive because of the competition’s format, in which the twenty-two participating teams were directly cut down to two finalists without any intervening knockout rounds.” 

Published on March 14, 2022