Jack Heyburn L’18 and Teresa Akkara L’18 win 2018 Keedy Cup

Jack Heyburn L’18 and Teresa Akkara L’18 won this year’s Edwin R. Keedy Cup, Penn Law’s internal moot court competition. In addition, Paul Quincy L’18 was named Best Oralist.

The four finalists argued District of Columbia v. Wesby, a recent Supreme Court case involving a party at a vacant house in the District of Columbia. Police arrived at the house and arrested the partygoers for trespassing, despite the partygoers’ assertions that they were invited or had permission to be in the house. Heyburn and Akkara argued for the petitioners, Ryan Monahan L’18 and Quincy argued for the respondents.

“The Keedy Cup is always a highlight of the Penn Law academic year, and this year was no exception,” said Eleanor Barrett L’05, Denise A. Rotko Associate Dean for Legal Practice Skills. “Jack, Teresa, Ryan, and Paul did an outstanding job of boiling a very complicated Supreme Court case down to its essence and contending with a very hot bench of distinguished judges, including the first-ever Keedy finalist judge. It was a thrill to watch.”

The judges for the competition were the Honorable Richard L. Gabriel Justice L’87 of Colorado Supreme Court, the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the Honorable James B. Loken of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Teresa Akkara was raised in West Windsor, New Jersey. She graduated summa cum laude from The College of New Jersey, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At Penn Law, Akkara has been a Family Law Fellow for the Global Women’s Leadership Project and a senior editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She is also a member of the Federal Appellate Externship, which offers law students in their final year the chance to brief and argue a case pending before the Third Circuit. After graduation, she will join the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. 

Jack Heyburn was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in History. Before entering law school, Heyburn served for two years on the legislative staff of Senator Mitch McConnell.  At Penn Law, he is a member of the Supreme Court Clinic, the Vice President of the Penn Law Federalist Society, and the Comments Editor for the Journal of Constitutional Law. After graduation, Heyburn will clerk for the Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before joining the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an Associate.

Ryan Monahan was born and raised in Cranford, New Jersey. He graduated summa cum laude from Lafayette College, with degrees in Philosophy and Government & Law. At Penn Law, Monahan has been a member of the Supreme Court Clinic and an Articles Editor for the Journal of Constitutional Law. After graduation, he will join the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Paul Quincy was born and raised in Northern California before switching coasts to Washington, D.C., for college. At Georgetown University, Quincy wrote album reviews for the school newspaper and competed on the University’s swim team. After graduation, he remained in D.C. working as a paralegal for two years. At Penn Law, he has been active with Lambda, now enjoying the informal role of President Emeritus, and with the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, as a Senior Editor. This past fall, he split his semester between taking classes and clerking with the Senate Judiciary Committee. After graduation, he will join the D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis.