Moot court has a distinguished history at the University of Virginia School of Law. Thomas Jefferson founded the University in 1819 and Law was among the original schools he contemplated. Accordingly, the School of Law began in 1826. From the early days, “Moot Court” played an integral part of that education – nearly half of the early Law School program descriptions were devoted to describing its Moot Court. History
Professor John B. Minor, the School’s fourth Professor of Law, said Moot Court is "indispensable to give the students insight into the practical application of the leading principles of law." As of 1903, every student was “required to argue at least one case in the Moot Court, and to hand in a carefully prepared brief of his argument, with a digest of the authorities relied on.”
When the School’s first official Dean, William Minor Lile, retired as Professor Emeritus in 1930, the first Moot Court Competition had just taken place and soon continued under his namesake. Today, the Lile Competition is completely student run and fields the largest student participation of any organization, building on the skills developed in the First Year Legal Writing Courses.
Beginning in 2002, student interest in external law-related competitions started to grow. Today’s students are not content to stay within the picturesque grounds of Charlottesville – the Extramural Moot Court Board and National Trial Advocacy Team train and send more than 25 teams of students to compete against top competitors from around the country in a variety of fields handling complex legal issues.
Past winners of the Lile Competition are available here.