Alexandria, Va. — Students from Georgia State University College of Law prevailed over more than 60 other student teams to win first place at the 22nd Annual Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, held March 1-3 in New York. The competition is co-sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute and St. John’s University School of Law. Georgia State University previously won the Eleventh Circuit preliminary title at the Cristol Kahn Paskay Cup held in Miami, Fla. Mississippi College School of Law, who also earned a preliminary title at the Elliott Cup for the Fifth Circuit competition, took second place in the Duberstein competition. Third place honors were shared by teams from the Texas Tech University School of Law and the University of Memphis School of Law, which also won the award for the Best Brief of the competition. Jennifer D’Augustinis of the Florida Coastal School of Law took the honor of Best Advocate. About 1,000 members of the New York restructuring community attended the awards dinner last night at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. A ceremony honored the late Judge Burton Lifland of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District and the late Joseph Hurley, Chief Clerk of the Court in the Eastern District of New York. The Duberstein Competition, named for the late Judge Conrad B. Duberstein, a St. John’s alumnus and former ABI director, has grown into the largest appellate moot court competition in the nation. ABI’s Endowment Fund provided $12,000 in cash prizes for the winners. The competition consists of eight rounds of oral arguments, with the final rounds held at the Duberstein Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y. Many of the teams are coached by ABI practitioners or academic members. The Georgia State team was coached by Prof. Jessica Gabel. Nearly 200 lawyers and judges donated their time and expertise to help judge the event. The competition is directed by Prof. G. Ray Warner, Associate Dean for Bankruptcy Studies at St. John’s and a member of ABI’s Board of Directors. This year’s problem raised two timely unresolved issues of bankruptcy law: (1) whether rejection of a trademark licensing agreement under §365 terminates the licensee’s right to continue to use the trademark; and (2) whether the presumption against extraterritorial application of statutes prevents the application of §365 to a foreign licensing agreement. For more information on ABI's Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, please go to http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/academics/llm/duberstein. ### ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 13,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abiworld.org/conferences.html.