Powell Club Victor Over Simpson-Sayre In Ames Competition Final

Climaxing a three year career of legal wrangling, the Powell Law Club defeated their sole remaining rival, the Simpson-Sayre Club, in the finals of the Ames Competition last night in the court-room of Langdell Hall before an audience of 500. Their victory brought with it a prize of three hundred dollars, while the runners-up received two hundred.

The Powell Club represented the fictitious Beal Distributing Co. in the suit brought against it by the Langdell Manufacturing Co. whose case the Simpson-Sayre Club presented. Counsel for Langdell maintained that their refusal to abide by the terms of the new Federal Wages and Hours Law did not constitute a breach of contract because the Law was unconstitutional.

Sitting on the judicial bench for the trial were Justice Harold M. Stephens of the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Judge Walter E. Treanor of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Judge John C. Knox of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Their decision was awarded not on the basis of the actual constitutionally of the law, but rather because of the superior quality of the arguments and briefs presented by the Powell Club.

Annual Event Since 1911

Arguing for the victorious Beal Co. were Walter R. Bellatti and Phil E. Gilbert. However all eight members of the Powell Club collaborated in the preparation of the brief. The Langdell Co. was represented orally by Robert B. Wolf and Robert Braucher, although the brief was the joint work of the entire Simpson-Sayre group.

The competition is extremely important to the seniors who reach the finals, for the winners and runners-up are generally given a choice of positions with several of the nation's leading law firms.

Members of the Powell Club who worked on the case besides Bellatti and Gilbert, were John T. Binkley, George B. Lester, Jr., Irvin L. Stephenson, Robert Thrun, and Edward S. Willis. Representing the Simpson-Sayre Club were Wolf and Braucher, William R. Fry, Jr., Philip Goodhelm, Robert K. Greenfield, Gilbert Hellman, Leonard Lesser and John Van Brunt, Jr.