Evan North and Lindsay Grisé say they’ve put more than 250 hours of work into moot court, an extracurricular law school activity, and will be working some more to prepare for next week’s national competition in New York.

They say the experience has paid off — they’ve learned a lot while preparing a 40-plus-page legal brief and arguing before several different lawyers, judges and law school professors in practice rounds.

The competition is judged on the written brief and oral arguments, performed before a mock panel of appellate judges. Teams must be prepared to argue both for and against the side for which they prepared the brief.

North, a third-year law student from Lenexa, said that preparing for the National Moot Court Competition has helped him.

“I think this is probably the most practical experience you can get in law school,” said North, who has a bachelor’s degree in journalism. “For people who want to litigate in their careers, this is as good as it gets.”

The duo are researching a fictitious case involving a make-believe city that passed an ordinance requiring businesses to provide health benefits to workers or face a tax penalty. A local business association challenged the law.

The issues raised in the case are complex, North said, and include whether a city can pre-empt federal law, among other complicated legal issues.

“It’s not something I knew anything about before I started this,” North said.

KU has several moot court squads participating in competitions, but this team is one of the most distinguished in the country, said Pam Keller, a law school professor who serves as the students’ moot court coach.

“To have won the regionals and to participate in the nationals is really a terrific accomplishment for the students,” Keller said. “And the law school is very proud of them.”

Grisé, a December law school graduate from Olathe, has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and said she has enjoyed all the work the contest has required.

“I’m kind of obsessed with this,” she said, easily recalling that there are 28 schools represented out of 14 regions in the national competition.

The team won KU’s region, which included law schools from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas.

Grisé said she has been telling her friends that they’ll win in New York next week, and believes that she and North can make good on that promise.

“We decided that KU hadn’t won in a while,” she said. “And we want to win it.”