The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (LMU Law) Moot Court hosted its second annual moot court competition in honor of LMU Law alumnus Matthew B. Long on April 16-17, 2024.
The annual competition serves as the tryout for rising second-year law students to become a member of LMU Law Moot Court. Moot Court accepts no more than 15 students each year based on their oral advocacy and legal writing skills. Each student who participates in the competition presents an oral argument based on the appellate brief they completed for their legal writing course. This year, 30 students participated in the competition. The second annual Matthew B. Long competition winners were Halie Higgins of Erwin, TN and Carly Ebersberger of Mount Juliet, TN.
Matt Long passed away on July 19, 2020, at the age of 37. He graduated as part of LMU Law’s inaugural class in 2013, where he served as Moot Court Chief Justice and won the second-place brief for the 2012 Elon Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition. While in law school, Long also served as an extern for Chief Justice Gary Wade of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Deeply passionate about litigating personal injury matters, he began his legal career at Gilreath & Associates in Knoxville and later moved to Nashville to open the Tennessee division of the Atlanta-based Roth Firm. In 2017, Long was nationally ranked as one of the top ten lawyers under 40 for excellence in the field of personal injury law. Long returned to Knoxville in August of 2019 to open his own law office.
Long was a fierce advocate for victims and was a pillar in his community. He was active in the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association and served for many years in the Knoxville Barristers and on the Functions Committee of the Knoxville Bar Association.
In addition to holding the intramural competition for new members, LMU Law Moot Court recently held elections for its 2024-2025 Executive Board. The Moot Court Chief Justice for 2024-2025 will be Mitchell Davis of Batavia, OH. The outgoing Executive Board, led by John Foster of Oak Ridge, TN, presided over one of the most successful years LMU Law Moot Court has ever had. The E. Earle Zehmer National Workers Compensation Moot Court Competition was the year's first competition. The team consisted of Nolan Renfro and Tony Hofmeir, with Shannon Gil as the brief writer. Shannon’s brief scored first overall in the competition.
Additionally, the ABA NAAC team of John Foster and McKenzie Wilson, led by its second-year main brief writer, Cameron Zahn, wrote a brief that scored 8th in the Philadelphia regional of over 30 teams. Rounding out the year, Kelli Holmes, Rowan Jordan, and Courtney Keegan-Smith placed second overall in the Sixth Annual Midwest Moot Court Bankruptcy Competition. They then competed in the 32nd Annual Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition scoring the 4th highest brief score (out of 50), with a score of 95/100. Through various fundraising efforts, the board raised over $4,000 this year for the organization and future competitions.
The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law is in Knoxville’s Historic Old City Hall Building. LMU Law is an integral part of LMU’s values-based learning community and is dedicated to preparing the next generation of lawyers to provide sound legal service in the often underserved region of Appalachia and beyond.
