UND School of Law Moot Court Competition Renamed in Honor of Professor Kirsten Dauphinais

The University of North Dakota School of Law’s Internal Moot Court Competition will now be known as The Professor Kirsten Dauphinais Moot Court Competition in honor of the late Professor Kirsten Dauphinais, who passed away on July 18, 2026, following 21 years of service on the School of Law faculty.

The Moot Court Board and the School of Law’s faculty fully supported the renaming, and Dean Del Crandall submitted the request to the University Naming Committee. The Committee recommended approval at its September meeting, and UND President Andrew Armacost approved the request on October 13, 2026. Professor Dauphinais’s family also supported the decision.

The new name will take effect with this year’s final round on November 4, 2026, in the VandeWalle Courtroom at the School of Law. This year’s competition, held in the year of her passing, will be the first to carry her name, and every future competition will as well.

Professor Dauphinais joined the UND School of Law faculty in 2005 after beginning her academic career at Howard University School of Law. She held the Law School Builders of the Profession Professorship. Over more than two decades at UND she served as Director of Lawyering Skills, Director of Bar Passage and Academic Success, and, for many years, Director of the Moot Court Program. In recent years she shared leadership of the program as co-director with Professor Ariana Meyers. Professor Dauphinais was a 1996 graduate of Columbia Law School and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colgate University.

Moot Court was one of Professor Dauphinais’s deepest professional passions. She believed the best lawyers combine intellectual rigor with empathy, integrity, and sound judgment, and she brought both high standards and real warmth to her work with students. Generations of UND law students who competed in the Internal Moot Court Competition were shaped by her mentorship and by her belief in their potential.

The Internal Moot Court Competition is held each fall and is open to second- and third-year law students. It is one of the School of Law’s signature experiential programs. Sitting Justices of the North Dakota Supreme Court frequently judge the final round.