{"id":13455,"date":"2019-04-19T10:20:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T17:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/law\/2019\/04\/19\/first-year-law-students-put-their-skills-to-the-test-in-annual-rutan-tucker-golden-gavel-competition\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:22:43","slug":"first-year-law-students-put-their-skills-to-the-test-in-annual-rutan-tucker-golden-gavel-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/law\/2019\/04\/19\/first-year-law-students-put-their-skills-to-the-test-in-annual-rutan-tucker-golden-gavel-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"First-year law students put their skills to the test in annual Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel Competition – Finalists Alexander Cargill and Yara Wahba elicit praise from VIP panel of judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was standing room only inside the Chapman University Fowler School of Law\u2019s appellate courtroom on Monday as two first-year law students delivered and defended their final arguments in the 2019 Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel Competition.<\/p>\n

This public exhibition capped off the annual competition, during which 1L students engage in oral argument based on briefs they write over the course of their spring Legal Research and Writing class.<\/p>\n

After several rounds of competition the previous week, four semi-finalists were left standing on the evening of April 12: Alexander Cargill and Caitlin O\u2019Bara for the defendant, and Alexis Jugan and Yara Wahba for the government. Although all the semi-finalists\u2019 arguments were strong, in the end, Cargill and Wahba emerged as the two Golden Gavel winners, each earning a $500 scholarship and the coveted Golden Gavel award.<\/p>\n

On Monday afternoon, they faced off in the final exhibition round presided by a panel of guest judges: U.S. District Court Judge Karen Scott, California Court of Appeal Associate Justice Thomas Goethals, and John Hurlbut, partner of the competition\u2019s sponsoring firm, Rutan & Tucker, LLP.<\/p>\n

\"Judges
Justice Thomas Goethals, Yara Wahba, Judge Karen Scott, Alexander Cargill, and John Hurlbut.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following their deliberation, the judges\u2014who pulled no punches during both the defense and prosecution\u2019s arguments and rebuttals\u2014unanimously praised the two finalists on their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s obvious why you’ve made it through rounds and are sitting here today,\u201d said Goethals. \u201cBoth of you, in terms of answering questions, are as good or better than most lawyers I saw in court this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurlbut, who has also served as a Golden Gavel judge in previous years, noted that both Cargill and Wahba were exceptionally prepared and did a \u201cvery good\u201d job of answering the judges\u2019 inquiries without losing momentum on their argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of lawyers don\u2019t answer the question directly,\u201d Hurlbut said. \u201cThere was not a case mentioned you didn\u2019t have an answer to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutan & Tucker, a prominent Orange County law firm, has a long history of investment in the mission of Chapman University and the Fowler School of Law. Several Fowler alumni are employed by the firm, including partners Jennifer Farrell, Brandon Sylvia, and Kenneth Zielinski.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was standing room only inside the Chapman University Fowler School of Law\u2019s appellate courtroom on Monday as two first-year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2818,"featured_media":13459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[318,386],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-13455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-competitions","category-dale-e-fowler-school-of-law","tag-golden-gavel"],"yoast_head":"\nFowler School of Law | Chapman Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/law\/2019\/04\/19\/first-year-law-students-put-their-skills-to-the-test-in-annual-rutan-tucker-golden-gavel-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First-year law students put their skills to the test in annual Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel Competition - 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