Merchant & Gould attorneys Rachel Zimmerman and William Schultz recently coached the University of Minnesota Law School's Intellectual Property Moot Court competition team to victory. The competition was held on March 10-12 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Zimmerman and Schultz's team of Angela Ni and Charles Frohman will advance to the Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court National Competition after placing second out of twenty-one competition teams at the Northeast Regional Competition. Ni also won the Best Oralist award for the Competition. The National Competition will take place on April 10-11 in Washington D.C.

Schultz has served as a coach to the University's competition teams for the past three years. Zimmerman coached the team for the first time this year, adding valuable first hand experience with Federal Circuit briefing. This is the third consecutive appearance at the National Competition by Merchant & Gould coached teams. "The team spent hours preparing two stellar appeal briefs and perfecting their oral argument skills. Their hard work put them in a position to advance to the national tournament where they will have the opportunity to argue at the Federal Circuit Courthouse," Schultz explained. "Angela and Charles are talented writers and oralists. I expect they will perform very well at nationals," stated Zimmerman.

Zimmerman and Schultz also teach the Intellectual Property Moot Court course at the University of Minnesota.
Zimmerman practices general intellectual property law with an emphasis on patent litigation. Her practice focuses on resolving clients' complex patent and other intellectual property disputes. A former clerk for the Honorable James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Zimmerman also focuses her practice on handling clients' appellate-level disputes.

Schultz practices general intellectual properly law with an emphasis on trademark and copyright litigation. With a background in Internet technology and web marketing, he focuses on disputes regarding software and web-based applications as well as the trademarks promoting that technology. Schultz was the 2001 American College of Trial Lawyers National Moot Court Competition winner and a two-time finalist in the Association of Trial Lawyers of America mock trial competition.