Senior Lecturer Michael Spivey, GVPT Ph.D. ’15, Creates Moot Court Experience Fund

Thanks to a generous $40,000 gift from Senior Lecturer Michael Spivey, Department of Government and Politics (GVPT) students will be eligible to receive financial support for related experiential learning opportunities—especially moot court competitions.

In moot court, students argue a hypothetical constitutional law case before a mock “Supreme Court” consisting of lawyers, constitutional law professors and often appellate judges. There are always two constitutional law issues at the center of a moot court competition, thus there are always two advocates arguing for each party in the case; teamwork is a crucial part of the experience.

Spivey himself competed on a moot court team while pursuing his law degree at the Georgetown University Law Center.

“I joke that the highlight of my legal career was in my second year of law school, when I won the Leahy Competition and argued before Justice William Brennan, now deceased,” said Spivey. “After the competition he shook my hand and said, ‘Young man, that was a fabulous argument. You answered all my questions, and I didn’t have anything left to ask you.’ And I said to myself, ‘How do I top this? A Supreme Court justice just complimented my argument? My entire law career is going to be downhill from here.’”

After practicing at two national firms, Spivey opened his own firm, Spivey Health Law, in 1998. The firm was very successful, but after 15 years of practicing law, Spivey missed the intellectual rigor of academia. He decided to “get the neurons firing again” and start taking graduate-level courses at the University of Maryland in 2002.

“It was not a fully thought-through plan at the beginning,” admitted Spivey, who eventually applied for and earned his Ph.D. in 2015. “I started my Ph.D. program when I was 48 years old, and everyone said ‘Yeah, you can think about teaching, but no one is going to hire somebody as old as you. They want young whippersnappers.’”

“Everyone” was wrong. The professor who preceded Spivey in teaching “Introduction to Constitutional Law” abruptly left the department, and GVPT approached Spivey to see if he could step in. Not only did Spivey accept the then part-time position—while working toward his Ph.D. and continuing to practice at his firm—he went on to become a full-time faculty member, earn the Joel J. Feller Research Senior Lecturer distinction, and most recently create the university’s first undergraduate moot court team.

“A few years ago I was invited to speak before the Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity at UMD, and in the meeting there was a young lady who asked about my background, and when I told her that story [about Justice William Brennan], she said ‘Oh, I was a moot courter in high school. Do we have a moot court program here?’” recalled Spivey. “I said ‘No, I didn’t realize there was undergraduate moot court,’ and I started checking in to that.”

After a couple of years, Spivey got approval for an "Appellate Advocacy” course designed to prepare students for the American Moot Court Association’s (AMCA) regional and national tournaments. He welcomed the inaugural class of participants in the fall of 2021, which included the Phi Alpha Delta student who inspired Spivey to establish the team: Jenifer Fridman, a senior double majoring in criminology and criminal justice, and in government and politics.

For last year’s virtual competition, the class broke into four teams. Two of those teams advanced to nationals; one having taken sixth place in the regional competition, and other with Fridman and Matthew Rubinstein, a rising GVPT senior who helped Fridman and Spivey create the moot court club, having placed second. Fridman was also recognized as the regional competition’s best advocate.

“Being grilled with questions from Chief Justice Spivey was excellent preparation for the real moot court competitions we competed in,” said Rubinstein, who is interested in attending law school one day. “As everyone who has been a part of the UMD moot court team during its brief existence would say, moot court is a fantastic opportunity both for students who are interested in a further legal education, and for those who are not.” 

The AMCA’s 2022 competitions are currently set to take place in person; a decision that comes with pros, but also potentially costly cons.

“Moot court teaches great skills independent of legal analysis; it teaches basic approaches to argumentation, humility in knowing that there are weaknesses in your position whichever side you’re arguing, and—I’ve really seen this with students—it teaches a degree of self-confidence,” said Spivey. “I view this program as a legacy project that will continue after I am no longer teaching at UMD, but one of the obstacles to that is the cost of going to these competitions. I gave this money so that students now and in the future will have the ability to do this; will have the ability to experience what it is like to be an appellate advocate before a bunch of intimidating lawyers and judges.”

Twenty students are currently signed up for Spivey’s moot court course, MLAW411, with more on the waitlist. That means UMD will have at least 10 teams competing in moot court competitions this fall—and Spivey has high hopes for each of them.

“All of these students have had me for a previous course, and many took my ‘Civil Rights and the Constitution’ class in which I do a weekly moot. They get this and are eager to compete,” said Spivey. “My immediate goal is to get every one of these teams to nationals, but my ultimate goal here is to make Maryland a top tier moot court school.”

To make a gift to the Dr. Michael O. Spivey Current-Use Student Support Fund, visit go.umd.edu/spiveystudentsupportfund.

To learn more about UMD's moot court team, email umdmootcourt@gmail.com and look out for updates on the team's Instagram account: @umdmootcourt

Published on Wed, Jun 29, 2022 - 9:42AM