On Thursday, March 11, 2021, MIPLA held another successful version of its annual MIPLA Cup, an oral advocacy competition that serves as a friendly competition between the teams from three local law schools who are also competing in the AIPLA's national Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.

This was the first year that the MIPLA Cup, like the Giles Rich Competition, has been conducted remotely – reflecting the reality of arguing a case in the continuing pandemic.  In fact, there was no MIPLA Cup in 2020 due the timing of the COVID outbreak, so organizers, the teams, and the many attorneys who volunteer as judges and coaches were glad to be back "in court."

The teams all argued the case well, leading to very close scoring by the judges, but in the end, the team from University of St. Thomas Law School grabbed first place, and there was a literal tie for second between teams from the University of Minnesota Law School and MitchellHamline School of Law.  This year, MIPLA awarded a total of $3,000 in scholarships for the students' efforts.

We thank Sharon Roberg-Perez and Ryan Dornberger from Robins Kaplan and Peter Forrest from Dicke Billig for generously giving their time as judges.  We already look forward to next year's MIPLA Cup, when we can hopefully gather in person. 

Submitted by Kevin Conneely