The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at Colorado Law's seventh annual Interdisciplinary Ethics Tech Competition was held on February 4, 2023. Eight teams comprised of students from a range of academic disciplines collaborated to form a hypothetical task force testifying before a Congressional Committee to provide recommendations on how - if at all - the U.S. government should regulate deep fakes. They sought to answer the question:

As viewers can no longer tell the difference between real and faked content, how do we draw the line to harness the beneficial aspects of this technology while protecting against harm?

The top three teams won scholarship awards of $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000, respectively. 

The three highest-scoring teams were as follows:

• 1st Place: Shayan Abtahi (Law), Lucia Jayne (Computer Science), Yamineesh Kanaparthy (Business Analytics) and Sarah Sorenson (Law)
• 2nd Place: Mariah Bowman (Law), Sean Harms (Law), Conor Rowan (Aerospace Engineering) and Britt Wirth (Law)
• 3rd Place: Xelef Botan (Law), Kailey Lauter (Law), Kylie Hunter (Engineering/Technology Cybersecurity and Policy) and Colton Marschik (Business)   

The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program at Colorado Law is a partnership that allows us to make ethics a central part of every law student's education. Held annually, the Interdisciplinary Ethics Tech Competition gives students a chance to wrestle with a real-world ethics problem in collaboration with a diverse team of students studying law, business, communication, journalism, engineering, ITP, information science, or computer science. Past case problems have featured a tech company grappling with ethical obligations related to its facial expression recognition product, and an online platform's efforts to address the challenges presented by "fake news."

The competition provides students with the unique opportunity to work as part of an interdisciplinary team on a problem involving ethical, legal, business, technology, and privacy issues similar to what they are likely to encounter after graduation. This hands-on learning experience prepares students to collaborate effectively across disciplines in their careers, and positions students to be ethical members of business management teams.

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For the fourth consecutive year, a team of University of Colorado Law School students took first place at the Federal Communications Bar Association National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition on February 24 and 25, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

The team, comprised of Alex Kimata (’18), Gabrielle Palanca (’17), and Mike Stegman (’17), received awards for “Best Brief” and “Best Argument.” Kimata was also recognized with the “Best Oralist” honor.

This year’s win continues a distinguished tradition at Colorado Law, which has now landed the national title in this competition four years in a row and five years out of the last seven, with first-place wins in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

“I was overjoyed that we delivered a fourth consecutive win for Colorado Law,” Palanca said. “It demonstrates what a tremendous resource the school has in its telecommunications law faculty and attorney networks.”

Net neutrality was the topic of this year's problem, which involved interpretation of the FCC's Open Internet regulations.

The team prepared by practicing arguments in front of volunteer judges, who included telecommunications and energy attorney Becky DeCook (Moye White LLP); Tom Dixon, first assistant attorney general, Colorado Office of the Attorney General; and Professor Amy Bauer. The team’s final practice took place at the Colorado Supreme Court and was presided over by Justice Richard Gabriel.

“The students’ hard work and preparation over the last several weeks was really something special to see, and we could not be prouder of their accomplishments,” said Assistant Clinical Professor Blake Reid (’10), who coached the team along with Silicon Flatirons fellows Bill Levis and Ken Fellman.

"The coaches for our team were fantastic and helped us prepare tremendously," Kimata said. "Blake Reid, Ken Fellman, and Bill Levis specifically helped moot us every Wednesday and spent as much time as we needed to ensure that we were prepared for the argument. Furthermore, Justice Gabriel of the Colorado Supreme Court was exceptionally generous and mooted us in the Colorado Supreme Court to both give us a different perspective and get all the jitters out before we did the competition."

“Volunteer judges would interrupt our arguments to pose questions, just as they do in the real competition,” Palanca said. “Because there was at least one new face each week, I was consistently asked questions I'd never considered, which helped me refine my argument and improve my ability to think on my feet.”

In its 23^rd year, the National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition provides students the opportunity to argue before private and government practitioners in the communications field. Each year, the competition problem, which is written by members of the FCBA, is “ripped from the headlines” of current technology, intellectual property, and telecommunications issues.

Pictured (L-R): Mike Stegman ('17), Gabrielle Palanca ('17), Alex Kimata ('18)

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They also placed first and received the “Best Draft” award in the Midwestern regional competition held in October at Loyola University School of Law in Chicago.

Keefe and Steel were among six teams that competed in the national rounds, which were hosted by the Philadelphia offices of BakerHostetler LLP, with teams competing via video conference. This year’s problem involved the drafting and negotiation of a software development, license, and hosting agreement between an education technology company and a company that provides training solutions for home health aides. 

“It has been a huge honor to represent Colorado Law in the LawMeets Competitions and to be a part of such a successful transactional program during my tenure as a student,” said Steel. “These competitions have greatly increased my confidence in my drafting and negotiating abilities and I feel much better about entering the workforce with practical experience under my belt. Moreover, the competitions themselves are a ton of fun and I have had the pleasure of meeting and learning from practicing attorneys and other law students from across the United States. We couldn’t be happier that we were able to bring home CU’s first IP LawMeets national title.”

A second Colorado Law team was also recognized at both the regional contests held in October and the national rounds. Christopher Cummins (’17), Marcela Dye (’18), and Kristine Yates (’17) took first place at their regional competition at Baylor Law School earlier this fall, and received the “Best Draft” distinction at the national championship for their contract representing the licensee.

LawMeets competitions are the deal equivalent of moot court. The IP LawMeets’ sister competition, Transactional LawMeets, regularly involves more than 80 law schools. Colorado Law has dominated the Transactional LawMeets, .

In addition to the transactional and IP competitions, LawMeets has expanded to offer specific transactional competitions for different areas of legal focus. LawMeets also offers a bankruptcy competition and start-up competition, in which Colorado Law will compete beginning in December 2016.

PICTURED (L-R): Sean Keefe and Parker Steel.

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Kiki Council (’17) and Nic Cordova (’18) won this year’s Carrigan Cup Mock Trial Competition after advancing through preliminary rounds, a semi-final round, and finally earning the judges’ verdict in the final round on September 19 in Wittemyer Courtroom.

Council and Cordova argued on behalf of an insurance firm in the fictional case Harbour v. Southern Comfort Life Insurance Company. They competed against Kristen Blodgett (’17) and Rebekah Stern (’18) in Colorado Law’s most prestigious in-house competition for aspiring litigators.

The case involved Southern Comfort’s policy in regard to an alleged suicide. Council and Cordova argued that the defendant’s husband, Clint Harbour, died of suicide, which Southern Comfort’s policy does not cover, while Blodgett and Stern argued that he died of accidental causes, enabling Harbour’s wife to collect a $1,000,000 insurance statement.

The judges ruled that Harbour’s death was more likely than not a suicide, thereby disqualifying surviving family members from receiving life insurance benefits, which earned Council and Cordova the title of 2016 Carrigan Cup champions. The judges for the final competition were The Honorable Philip Brimmer, Judge, United States District Court for the District of Colorado; Jessica Brown, partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP; and Michael Carrigan (’94), Regent, University of Colorado and partner, Holland & Hart, LLP.

The competition commemorates Michael Carrigan’s father, The Honorable Jim R. Carrigan, for his service to the University of Colorado Law School and to his profession. The Carrigan Endowment also directly supports the University of Colorado Law School’s National Mock Trial Team.

“The Carrigan Cup is important for two reasons,” said Kelsey Waldorf (’17), chair of this year’s competition and member of Colorado Law’s National Mock Trial Team. “First, it serves as valuable practice for the third-year (law student) members of our team that will be traveling to external competitions around the country in the coming three to four weeks.  Second, it serves as a mentorship in that third-year students are encouraged to partner with second-year law students interested in joining the team. This way the second-years get the benefit of the third-years’ experience, and the third-years can see the skills and talents each second-year can potentially bring to the team.”

Council and Cordova each received a $1,000 scholarship for winning the competition. Blodgett and Stern received $500 scholarships for placing second. Additionally, the top three individual speakers of the competition all received punch cards donated by the Hearsay Café. 

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The University of Colorado Law School won first place for the third year in a row at the Transactional LawMeet competition in April and the National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition in February 2016.

Stephanie Drumm (’17), Josh Kohler (’17), and Parker Steel (’17) were named co-national champions of the 7th Annual Transactional LawMeet competition in New York City on April 1, 2016. The team also received “Best Draft” honors for their drafting of proposed agreements and marking up their opposing teams’ drafts, making Colorado Law the only team to win awards for both written and spoken word. This marks Colorado Law’s third consecutive national title win at this competition.

Tasked with negotiating a merger of two emerging technology companies, the team spent five to seven hours a week for three months working through specific facts of the deal. The students prepared drafts and performed mock negotiations with their coach, Jon Taylor, a partner at Kendall, Koenig & Oelsner PC in Denver.

“This competition was probably the most valuable thing I have done in my law school career,” Steel said. “I gained insight and knowledge into the intricacies of being a deals attorney that I don’t believe you can get from being in the classroom. It is a huge honor to bring the national title to CU for the third year in a row, and it would not have been possible without the help of Jon Taylor on the negotiations side and Professor Amy Bauer on the drafting portion.”

“Colorado Law’s team was one of the stars of the competition,” said Richard Gorelick, secretary, general counsel, and corporate vice president of administration at Integra LifeSciences Corp., who served as a judge. “It was fun to see law students so prepared and engaged in such a practical exercise. Colorado Law showed up very well and distinguished itself—something of which the administration and faculty should be proud.”

A group of volunteer attorneys coached and advised the team: Becky DeCook, attorney, Moye White LLP; Tom Dixon, first assistant attorney general, Colorado Office of the Attorney General; Bill Hunt, partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP; Colorado Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel; Ken Fellman, adjunct faculty at Colorado Law and vice president, Kissinger & Fellman P.C.; and Bill Levis, senior fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center.

“Besides being an opportunity to practice our appellate writing skills, this year’s competition was really beneficial for meeting local telecommunications attorneys and receiving their feedback on our oral arguments,” Rubin said. “The host of attorneys who served as advisors to us definitely helped to hone our oral arguments. Through their connections, we even got to practice our oral argument at the Colorado Supreme Court and receive feedback from Justice Gabriel.”

The annual competition is hosted by the Moot Court Association of The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, the Institute of Communications Law Studies, and the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA).  This is Colorado Law's third consecutive first-place win and fourth overall national title in this competition, with first-place wins in 2011, 2014, and 2015.

“The fact that Colorado Law has taken first place in this competition for the third year in a row is a real testament to the school’s burgeoning telecommunications law program, from in-class lectures, to clinical experiences, to opportunities that students have to engage in professional networks through the Silicon Flatirons Center,” Rubin said.

“These wins are tremendous accomplishments for our student teams and for Colorado Law,” said Dean Phil Weiser. “Competitions such as these are fantastic opportunities for students to develop their practical skills, learn more about specific areas of the law, and develop their abilities to work in teams. These skills are absolutely essential for a successful legal career.”

Pictured (L-R): Parker Steel (’17), Stephanie Drumm (’17), and Josh Kohler (’17) (top); Cole Woodward (’16),&�Բ�����;Colin Oldberg (’17), and Spencer Rubin (’16) (bottom)

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