Domenick L. Gabrielli National Family Law Moot Court Competition

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The Gabrielli Family Law Competition is a national competition of 24 teams held annually at Albany Law School.  The problem focuses on current issues in the field of family law which lend themselves to challenging oral arguments and competition.

Recent problems have included the following: A dispute between a former husband and wife as to the disposition after their divorceof their cryopreserved pre-embryos. The husband, who became involved in a homosexual relationship after leaving his wife, wanted to use a gestational surrogate to bring the pre-embryos to term.  The legal issues focused on the enforceability of the progenitors' consent agreement for the disposition of their pre-embryos, and the constitutionality of a local statute prohibiting surrogacy agreements where the statute's legislative history indicated that it was intended to target gay men. The competition's website is http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=1726.

In 2010, the team of Meta Brown, Randi Scott, and Lindsey Shapiro were Semifinalists.  In 2009, Joshua Bedwell and Stephanie Greenberg were Octofinalists. In 2008, Angela Ewald, Tania Luma, and Erin Shanahan advanced to Octofinals.  In 2006 Katherine Freytag, Stephen Klein, and Laura Presto advanced to the Octofinals and won Second Best Brief.

2010-2011 National Family Law Team

Jason Schneider and Tasha Wiesman

Coached by Professor Mary Jean Dolan