Benjamin Bertch (1L) and Kassanda Castillo (1L) are the winners of the 2013 Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel Competition. The competition, sponsored by the firm Rutan & Tucker, seeks to test the oral argument skills of first year law students at Chapman. Students compete against each other in front of practicing lawyers, professors and members of Chapman’s Moot Court Board.

The competition began last week with 160 students arguing a brief that they drafted relating to the standard to apply to an exception to the warrant requirement and whether the defendant is entitled to an entrapment jury instruction.  Out of the 160 student competitors, 32 advanced to the quarter-final rounds where they argued. Of these 32 students, 4 students representing the Defendant (Benjamin Bertch, Amanda Herman, William Kelly and Kaitlin Peterson) and 4 students representing the Government (Arthur Arutyunyanta, Kassandra Castillo, Lisa Poladian and Taylor Tondevold) advanced to the semi-final rounds on Saturday.  After one round, the field was narrowed to 2 students for the Defendant (Benjamin Bertch and Kaitlin Peterson) and 2 students for the Government (Kassandra Castillo and Taylor Tondevold).  After the final arguments, Kassandra Castillo and Benjamin Bertch emerged as winners and each received a scholarship furnished by Rutan & Tucker.