By Journalist Amaya Brooks(OBU)
Moot Court hits the ground running today with semi-finals. These rounds can be more tense, but the warm demeanor of Chief Justice Cross provides a friendly face for the court. Alyssa Cross is in her third year of law school at Oklahoma City University. She hopes to do civil litigation.“My favorite areas are corporations, contract law, anything really of that nature, personal injury, pretty much anything in the civil realm.”
When asked about her time in OIL, Chief Justice Cross recounts fond memories. Her story in OIL started when she was looking to round out her resume due to certain circumstances. “I needed to add extra curricular activities to really bump up my resume to overcome poor performance in the past.” Her story is one that is a great example of the good that this organization can do. OIL encouraged her to succeed after “I finally realized I needed to pass undergrad if I wanted to do anything that I wanted to do with my life. To make a difference, I needed to get my stuff together.”
“I was in political science class and a couple of students, I believe it was Lexi Gilson, made a statement about an OIL meeting. She briefly described it and I thought to myself, “That sounds exactly like something I want to do.” I went to the meeting and I’ll never forget they were doing a debate on rap music versus country music and I fell in love ever since.”
Alyssa’s first session in OIl, she was a delegate in the House of Representatives for the OSU delegation. In fact, her bill was the freshman bill. However, her first experience at OIL also led to a life changing event for her. “I was roommates with Lexi Gilson and Kat Kleiner, who had just been appointed to the court, so I saw her with all of these books and notes and stuff. I asked her what she was up to, she told me about it, and I thought “oh my gosh, I wanna do that”.”
In her first time competing in the Moot Court competition, Chief Justice Cross got third place. “The next semester I got first place, I was offered a spot on the court, and I’ve been there ever since.”
This is her first session as Chief Justice and when asked about her experience in this position, she said, “It was pretty interesting having to select the case and get that prepared. I wanted a really relevant case that was going to give competitors the opportunity to suspend their personal beliefs and make an argument based on the cases I gave them on both sides. It was kind of tough… I’ve gotten good feedback on the case so it’s going really well. I’ve got a great group of justices, so coordinating with them has been a dream.”
“It’s fun getting to direct the courtroom, but honestly just seeing everyone come and be prepared. I would have enjoyed it just as much as a regular justice.”
Chief Justice Cross’ advice to anyone seeking to compete in Moot Court or to anyone currently in the competition would be “really just put your all into it. If you leave it all out in the courtroom and you can be proud of what you’ve done, that’s really all anyone could expect of you. Don’t be too scared, just do your best. Read the cases, come prepared with cases. Look at the resource materials we have available and just be as informed as you possibly can. Fine tune your argument and don’t be afraid to be adaptable.”
Thank you, Chief Justice Cross, for the work you do to ensure the Moot Court competition stays alive, well, and competitive.