On March 23, 2017, Attorney Kirk N. Aurandt accepted an invitation to be a judge at the 2017 Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition held at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans. The event was an interscholastic appellate moot court competition that was sponsored by The University of Texas School of Law, and co-sponsored by Tulane University Law School. The event is named in honor of the late Judge John R. Brown, a preeminent admiralty judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1955 to 1933.