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MVS Receives Honorary Order of the Barristers AwardApril 7, 2016

Each year, a Drake Law School Alumni or friend of Drake Law School is recognized as an honorary member of the Order of the Barristers. This honor is given in recognition of the individual’s contribution to the Moot Court program at Drake and their example as an outstanding advocate in practice. The Order of the Barristers is a national honor society whose purpose is to encourage the development of oral advocacy and brief writing skills through law school programs.

Ed Sease made the decision in 1981 to start an intellectual property moot court team at Drake University Law School. It was felt that exposure to the complex issues that arise during intellectual property litigation would be beneficial to students, especially when coupled with the chance to hone oral advocacy skills. That year, the team entered in the Giles Rich Patent Competition, and along with the help of his colleagues, Ed coached them to a national victory where they also received the best oralist award. It was the unique preparation of the team, specifically, the mooting and practices held in front of the intellectual property attorneys at McKee, Voorhees & Sease—that won the competition.

Since then, MVS has continued its long standing involvement with intellectual property moot court program, taking it from the patent competition to the trademark competition. Ed has coached and funded the team for over twenty years before turning the coaching duties over to a number of MVS attorneys, including one of the current coaches, Christine Lebron Dykeman. However, it has always truly been a firm wide effort to prepare the team. Each of the attorneys at MVS have volunteered countless hours over the past 35 years to prepare the teams for competition. Under their combined guidance, the teams have had much success and more importantly, these attorneys have helped students develop oral advocacy skills. It is for these reasons, Honorary Order of the Barristers award for 2016 is presented to the law firm of McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC.

 

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