Mentor Competition
In the fall of 2019, thirty-six New York City Department of Education high schools competed in the thirty-fifth annual MENTOR Moot Court Competition co-hosted by Fordham University School of Law and the Justice Resource Center. Each team partnered with a law firm or legal organization to help the students prepare and develop oral arguments on constitutional questions of law.
Last year, the students argued (1) whether fictional plaintiff, Frank Maddison’s high school violated his right to be free from unreasonable seizures during an extended detention and interrogation and (2) whether Maddison held a Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when the school drew an adverse inference from his silence during a school board disciplinary hearing.
The two finalist teams, Townsend Harris High School and James Madison High School, competed at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse on December 3, 2019. James Madison High School, coached by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, was the 2019 MENTOR Moot Court champion team.