Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 4, 1 April 2011 — UH excels in national moot court competition [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UH excels in national moot court competition

2 Hawaiian students win Best Advocate award

By ūiana Leone \ative Hawaiians who took top honors recently at a national competition among law students say they look forward to tackling Native Hawaiian rights issues as attorneys. Students at the University of Hawai'i's William S. Richardson School of Law took first and third plaee at the National Native Ameriean Law Students Association Moot Court Competition, held Feb. 25-26 at Columbia University in New York. "The other teams were really good, especially compared to last year," said Maxwell Kopper, who with partner Keani Alapa won first plaee as the Best Advocate team, the competition's top award. Eaeh of 66 teams from 3 1 schools in the competition argued both sides of a fictitious tribal case appealed to the federal court. "It's helpful for Native Hawaiians to study Indian law, because that is the closest body of law to Native Hawaiian issues. ... It's dealing with the pre-existing nature of a society having a government and legal system before Western society comes in," Kopper said. To win the competition, Kopper and Alapa had to go head-to-head with one of the four other two-per-son teams from Hawai'i, Sherilyn Tavares and Adam Roversi. "It's sad we had to beat them to move on," Kopper said. "They were tough," said Alapa. Of Elika Stimpson, a second-year student who tied for third plaee in the Best Oralist category, Kopper said, "She's really smooth and ... does a really good job explaining things simply in a way that's not offensive." Hawai'i's other moot court team members were: Sarah Kaopuiki, Jeannin-Melissa Russo, Maria Carmiehael, Ana Won Pat-Borja, Tyler Gomes and Mark Jensen. Just getting on the teaminvolved competition, Alapa said. Nineteen

second- and third-year law students tried out for it this year and just four were selected to join those already on the team. The team practiced for hundreds of hours to prepare for the eompetition, writing court briefs and

practicing oral arguments before 40 Hawai'i judges and attorneys who volunteered their time, said Derek Kauanoe, Student and Community Outreach Coordinator of the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law.

Since UH began competing in the annual competition in 1997, it has brought home 23 awards. Both Alapa and Kopper said being Hawaiian is such a part of who they are that it will influence the work they choose as lawyers. Both also attended Kamehameha Schools, whieh they said increased their desire to give back to the Hawaiian community. "I want Native Hawaiian law to be part of my practice," said Kopper, 26, who was born in Hilo and now lives in Kahalu'u. "We've seen Hawaiians get the short end of the stick when it comes to legal issues and I hope to be part of the change in that." Alapa, 30, of Ka'a'awa, said, "I don't know what the next step is (for Native Hawaiian rights issues), but when it gets to that point, I hope I ean be a part in some way." Law students in the competition eame from 3 1 law schools including those at Arizona State, Boston, Columbia, Cornell, Michigan State, Stanford, UCLA, University of Cal-ifornia-Berkeley, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wisconsin universities. After graduation this spring, Kopper will be a clerk for Hawai'i Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge Daniel R. Foley in Honolulu. Alapa, who has worked as an intern for the law firms of Meheula and Devens and Miehael Green while still in school, is "weighing his options," about what to do after graduation. Of UH's 355 current law students, 60 identify themselves as Native Hawaiian. Of the 1 1 moot court team members, eight are working toward a law school certificate in Native Hawaiian Law. Three of the team members - Gomes, Kaopuiki and Russo - are doing policy work for OHA. ■ Diana Leone, a veteran journalist, runs the jreeīance writing anel editing business Leone Creative Communication, on Kaua 'i.

The 1 1 members of the UH leam are, back rowfrom lefl: Sarah Kaopuiki, Sherilyn Tavares, Jeai> nin-Melissa Russo, Maria Carmichael, Elika Stimpson and Ana Won Pat-Borja. Front Row, from left, are: Adam Roversi, Keani Alapa, Max Kaanohi Kopper, Tyler Gomes and Mark Jensen.