Hicks Thomas Moot Court National Championship
Scoring Methodology
Updated August 2026
Moot Court is about both written and oral appellate advocacy. To that end, the scoring methodology for the Hicks Thomas Moot Court National Championship is designed to incorporate not only team advancement, but Best Brief and Best Speaker awards as well. Only traditional moot court competitions, involving advocates arguing both sides of an appellate issue to a panel of judges and submitting a written appellate brief, are included within the rankings. To qualify for inclusion in the rankings, a tournament must be open to all U.S. law schools.
The moot court competitions are divided into five (5) tiers, with the tiers being sorted according to both the size of the competition and its prestige.
Law school competitions are becoming more global, but this ranking system recognizes achievement in U.S. national competitions only. These rankings are therefore open to U.S. law schools only. Although international schools and/or non-law schools may compete in various competitions, such schools are not eligible to receive points under this rankings system.
Tier 1: |
There are only four competitions in this tier: the National Moot Court Competition, the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (U.S. National Round ONLY), and the Hicks Thomas Moot Court National Championship. In this tier, schools can earn points at both the regional competition level and the national competition level. Points are awarded for: |
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Regional Level: |
Regional Champion (7 points), Regional Finalist (4 points). |
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National Level: |
Champion (20 points), Finalist (16 points), Semi-finalist (10 points), Quarterfinalist (6 points), Best Speaker and Best Brief (9 points each). In addition, in any Tier I competition with over 70 U.S. teams participating in the national round, points are awarded for reaching the Octo-finals or Round of 16 (2 points). |
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Note 1: |
Results from other competitions with the “regional/national” format are only awarded points at the national level. The national portion of these competitions shall be treated as Tier 2 competitions for scoring purposes, regardless of the number of teams competing. |
Tier 2: |
This tier consists of competitions with 40 or more teams. Points are awarded as follows: Champion (15 points), Finalist (12 points), Semi-finalist (8 points), Quarterfinalist (4 Points), Best Brief and Best Speaker (7 points each). |
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Note 2: |
Any competition not listed in Tier 1 that has a regional component is treated as a Tier 2 competition for the purposes of the rankings. While regional points are not awarded for these competitions, the Tier 2 status recognizes the competitiveness of these competitions. |
Tier 3 |
This tier consists of competitions with 25-39 teams. Points are awarded as follows: Champion (11 points), Finalist (8 points), Semi-finalist (4 points), Best Brief and Best Speaker (5 points each). |
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Tier 4 |
This tier consists of competitions with 11-24 teams. Points are awarded as follows: Champion (7 points), Finalist (4 points), Best Speaker and Best Brief (3 points each). |
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Tier 5 |
This tier consists of competitions with 10 or fewer teams. Points are awarded as follows: Champion (4 points), Finalist (3 points), Best Speaker and Best Brief (2 points each). |
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Additional Notes:
- The 5-2 Rule: In order to qualify for the Hicks Thomas Moot Court National Championship, schools must have entered a minimum of 5 interscholastic competitions and earned points in at least two competitions.
- When a competition awards a Best Petitioner’s Brief and a Best Respondent’s Brief, the winning programs split the available points. The same applies when there is a tie for Best Brief or Best Speaker. If a competition awards a “Best” award to more than 2 competitors, the points will be split evenly between the number of winners (e.g. 3 Best Speaker Awards means the points are split 3 ways and so on).
- When a competition awards a Best Speaker Award on the preliminary rounds and a separate Best Speaker Award for the final round, the points will be awarded to the Best Speaker in the Preliminary Rounds only.
- The size of a competition for designation in the appropriate tier will be determined based on the number of briefs filed for the competition. The tier designation will not subsequently change if teams withdraw from the competition after the briefs are filed.
- State, region, or federal circuit-specific moot court competitions that are not open to all U.S. law schools are not recognized in these rankings.
