The disclosure of favorable evidence to criminal defendants by the prosecution, known as Brady disclosure, has consistently remained a hot-button issue in the legal community, especially as it applies to plea-bargaining. But the topic wasn’t too heated to be chosen as the key question for argument in the Thomas Tang Competition, during which two Fordham Law students, Daniel Chin ’17 and Hinako Gojima ’16, reached the national quarterfinals last week.
Hosted by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Tang Competition requires students to start working on arguments in late August, with a brief deadline of mid-September, and competition in regional and national rounds. Chin and Gojima were finalists in the regional round. Chin received the Best Oral Advocate award, but they 
didn’t stop there.
“We continued to push ourselves and practice towards the national round; the opportunity to argue in front of Judge Denny Chin [Class of 1978] at the final round really motivated both of us,” Gojima said.
With the help of fellow Asian Pacific American Law Student Association members and alumni, the two moot court competitors practiced their arguments daily and participated in practice moots organized by Sedgwick LLP in preparation for the finals. Although Gojima will graduate this academic year and Chin the next, they expressed a desire to potentially return as coaches.
The competition, named for Judge Thomas Tang, the first American of Chinese decent appointed to the Federal bench, also gave them “valuable feedback from judges at each round, which we will take with us and continue to try to improve on, for the remainder of our lives,” Gojima said. “We still aspire to have an opportunity to argue in front of Judge Chin, one day.”