New York Associates Komal Patel, Raj Mathur, and Ravi Bhalla, who serve as mentor-coaches for high school students at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens, New York, coached their mentees to the semi-finals at the annual MENTOR Moot Court Competition, which is organized by Fordham Law School and the Justice Resource Center. This was the furthest the Cardozo High School team has ever advanced in the competition.
The widely known competition teams up high schools with practicing law firm attorneys in New York City to mentor and coach the students as they compete in mock appellate arguments. Approximately 50 high school teams of four students each compete in single-elimination rounds from November through December each year. Under the coaching of Patel, Mathur, and Bhalla, the Cardozo High School team learned and practiced legal reasoning and oral advocacy, skills that were put to the test during the December 5 semi-finals held before federal judges and attorneys at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse.
Susman Godfrey has partnered with Cardozo High School’s moot court team for the past two years. The MENTOR Moot Court program is both educational for the students and rewarding for Susman Godfrey’s lawyers, who also receive training hours for their work in the program.
