MSU Law Students Compete in Semifinals at National NALSA Competition

Three teams from MSU College of Law participated in the 29^th Annual National Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) Moot Court Competition on February 26-27, 2021, hosted virtually by National NALSA in partnership with the University of North Dakota and its NALSA Chapter.

For the second year in a row, an MSU Law team advanced to top-tier placement at the competition. Kacey Chopito, ’21, and Cassondra Church, ’21, reached the semifinals, and they also secured the second-place award for Best Written Advocates.

In 2020, Chopito was one of two students who made history for MSU Law at the previous National NALSA Moot Court Competition, having advanced further than any team from the College of Law in past appearances. He and Kaitlin Gant, ’20, were finalists and received the second-place award for Best Overall Advocates.

“It was crazy how much the experience last year helped me and carried me through both the brief writing and the practices that we did,” Chopito explained about navigating the 2021 competition. “At a certain point it was like, ‘okay, I know exactly how this is going to go. I know exactly what to expect,’ so the nerves were a lot less.”

While Chopito leaned on his past experience, Church, who was new to Moot Court, found support from her teammate and their coaches, Neoshia Roemer, staff attorney for MSU Law’s Indigenous Law and Policy Center, and Linus Banghart-Linn, ’09. Roemer and Banghart-Linn also coached the 2020 team.

“They both brought something very unique to the table,” Church said. “Linus comes from a litigation background, so he offered comments about what the judges may ask you or how to approach a question like this. Neoshia has a wealth of knowledge in Indian law and works on helping and supporting students, so her comments were: ‘You got this! You can do this!’ Providing those encouraging words that I think I needed.”

Church called writing her “safe space” and explained her decision to join Moot Court as a strategic effort to push herself out of her comfort zone to strengthen her skills as an oralist. Coming away from the competition with the results that they did, she explained feeling a sense of honor and validation. Moot Court offers many law students the opportunity to test their skills and the knowledge learned in the classroom and to be formally acknowledged for them, something that both Chopito and Church said they value about the experience.

The experience was made more special for the pair by the opportunity to compete together. Chopito and Church first met during the American Indian Law Center’s Pre-Law Summer Institute in 2018, just prior to becoming classmates at MSU Law.

“We just worked really well as a team and I think that’s one of the key things,” Church said. “It seems like we just meshed well together, and I think that contributed a lot to how far we made it.”