COMPETITIONS INFORMATION SESSION 2015. ASHURST BEGINNERS MOOTING COMPETITION Directors: Kimberly...

COMPETITIONS INFORMATION SESSION 2015

ASHURST BEGINNERS MOOTING COMPET IT ION

Directors: Kimberly Yoon and Major Zhang

What is Mooting?

• A moot is a simulated appeal court hearing

• In teams of two, you will :

• act as barristers in a fictional legal dispute

• prepare legal arguments, write your submissions and present them orally

• present your case before a bench of judges, who will interrupt you in order to:

• Clarify your arguments

• Understand how your arguments fit with the relevant area of law

• Clarify the facts and decisions of cases you have cited

• Ask about the fact scenario

• Mooting is a legal conversation, unlike debating or public speaking. Your aim is to persuade the bench of the merits of your client’s case

Skills/Attributes Developed

• Advocacy and public speaking

• Understanding of the law (often before treatment in class)

• Legal research

• Legal argument and writing

• Case reading/analysis

Workload

• You are given 5 days to prepare

• For instance, if your Moot is on Monday night, you receive the problem on Wednesday night

• Written submissions are to be emailed to judges by midnight before your moot

• After this, you have the day to practice your oral submissions and find/print relevant pages of cases (you do not need to print entire cases or find casebooks)

• Four mooters will speak for a maximum of 20 minutes each, followed by the judges’ decision and feedback. The actual moot is expected to last about 1.5 hours

Future Opportunities

• External Competitions:

• Shine Torts Moot

• ALSA Moot Competitions

• AAT Administrative Law Moot

• Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot

• Jessup International Law Moot Competition

• Vis International Commercial Arbitration Competition

• Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition

• Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Competition

• Oxford Intellectual Property Moot Comp

• Ashurst Private Law Moot (run by the UNSW Law Society)

Competition Dates

• All moots begin at 6pm • Registration closes: 15th of March• Round 1: Weeks 4–6, Semester 1• Round 2: Weeks 10–12, Semester 1• Quarter Finals: Week 3, Semester 2 • Semi Finals: Week 8, Semester 2• Grand Final: Week 10, Semester 2

Registration Process

•The online registration form can be accessed through this link:

http://www.tinyurl.com/beginnersrego

You may register by yourself, or with a partner. Please fill out one form for the two of you if you are mooting

with a partner.• If you register individually we will match you to another law student with similar preferences

Contact Details

• You can email us at beginner.mooting@unswlawsoc.org

•You can call us:Kimberly Yoon: 0422 351 023Major Zhang: 0420 520 233

•Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

BEGINNERS CL IENT INTERVIEWING COMPET IT ION

Directors: Bettina Forde and Ivan Luo

What is Client Interviewing?

• When a lawyer first meets a client, he/she needs to interview the client and gather facts about their problem in order to understand the client’s needs and assist the client in making an informed decision. Such an interview is the setting of the client interviewing competition.

• An essential skill that any lawyer needs when meeting clients.

Structure

• A team of 2 competitors interviewing a client (a volunteer actor) in front of a judge (or judges in final rounds).

• Duration :

How it works?

• Competitors will receive their client memorandum a day before their scheduled round via email.

• The memo briefly indicates the general nature of the case. Thus, competitors should aim to extract as much information from the client as possible.

How it works?

During the interview:• Often clients will fail to disclose important information regarding

the case. The objective is to tease out relevant information from the client by asking relevant questions.

• At the end you need to summarise the relevant facts; and

• You must offer clients advice as to what their current position is at law, what their next step should be and whether there is sufficient evidence for a course of action, or more if research is needed.

What skills does the competition test?• Oral communication• Teamwork• Time management and thinking under pressure• Establishing a professional working relationship with the

client• Ability to extract relevant facts from the client and identify

the important issues • Recognising and dealing with moral and ethical issues

Workload

• Client Interviewing requires the least preparation compared to other skills competitions– Read the handbook – Read tips on how to conduct and structure an interview– Discuss strategies and prepare general questions– Practice with your partner– Briefly research the relevant area of law

Research

• When you receive the memo you might want to research on the particular area of law e.g. criminal, contract, tort, family – just general research.

• Don’t need actual technical legal knowledge.

• Research is usually for the purpose of providing solutions and options at the end of the interview – something for the client to take away.

Benefits/Future Opportunities

• Opportunities to compete in specific external competitions e.g. ALSA or UNSW’s Intervarsity Competition

• Exposure to practising lawyers – insights into real life practice.

• Opportunity to improve performance based on judges’ constructive feedback.

• Provides practical experience, not acquired in the setting of a classroom

Round Structure

Semester 1:– Registration: Weeks 12 & 13

Semester 2:– Round 1: Weeks 2 & 3– Round 2: Weeks 5 & 6– Quarter finals: Week 8– Semi finals: Week 10– Grand final: Week 12

Contact Details

• You can email us at beginners.clientinterviewing@unswlawsoc.org

•You can call us:Bettina Forde: 0406 456 189Ivan Luo: 0434 876 068

•Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

H E R B E RT S M I T H F R E E H I L L S B E G I N N E R S N E G O T I AT I O N

C O M P E T I T I O N

Directors: Anthony Fong and Michael Pham

What is Negotiations?

• It is a meeting between two legal teams, on behalf of their respective clients, with the intention of resolving a dispute.

• Negotiations are important in the legal sphere, since if performed successfully it can result in litigation being avoided.

How it works?

• You will compete in a team of two

• Three days before your allocated competition date you will receive an email from us containing three items:

1. The party to which you will be representing

2. Document containing general information

3. Document containing confidential information

How it works?

• On the date of the competition:– You will commence negotiations which will last 50

minutes (with an optional 5 minute break)– Afterwards, one team will leave the room whilst the

other team will engage in a ten minute self reflection of their performance with the judge

– After both teams have completed their reflection, both teams will be called back in and are provided with feedback from the judge

Eligibility

• To be eligible you must:– Be a UNSW law student.– Be a 1st year undergraduate UG or JD student.– Not have competed in any negotiations competition

before.– Not have completed the dispute resolution course.

Workload

• Light compared to the other competitions (about an hour or two preparation)

• The time before the competition should be used in two ways:– Familiarising yourself with the facts (four pages)– Identifying your client’s goals, issues and possible

solutions• Most of the work is undertaken on the night during the

course of the negotiation

Round Structure

• Semester one:– Registration: Weeks 12 & 13

• Semester two:– Round 1: Weeks 4 and 5– Round 2: Weeks 7 and 8– Quarter finals: Week 10– Semi finals: Week 11– Grand finals: Week 12

Skill Developed and Tested

• Creativity

• Problem Solving

• Communication

• Team Work

Benefits and Opportunities

• Develops the skills mentioned previously, which are relevant to any career

• Provides you practical experience, not acquired in your core law subjects

• Advanced negotiations• Australian Law Students Association• Resume

Contact Details

• You can email us at beginners.negotiations@unswlawsoc.org

•You can call us:Anthony Fong: 0423 705 432Michael Pham: 0432 350 423

•Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

WITNESS EXAMINAT ION COMPET IT ION

Directors: Christopher Goutama and Sharanya Srikanth

What is Witness Examination?

• It is similar to high school mock trials

As a Competitor:• You will be required to have a witness

– This can be anyone from UNSW, they do not necessarily have to be a law student

• For the main rounds (from preliminary), you will be assigned to either the defence or prosecution and given the problem 1.5 hours before the competition begins

• You will be competing against a fellow student in a court-room scenario• You will be judged by an experienced solicitor or barrister

– They will provide you with feedback at the end of the competition

How does it work?

•Competition structure:– One qualifier round – Two preliminary rounds– Quarter Finals– Semi-Finals– Grand Final

•Process: – Collect problem– 1.5 hours to prepare

Witness

– Opening– Examination-in-chief– Cross-examination– Closing

How does it work?

•Competition structure:– One qualifier round – Two preliminary rounds– Quarter Finals– Semi-Finals– Grand Final

•Process: – Collect problem– 1.5 hours to prepare

Witness

– Opening– Examination-in-chief– Cross-examination– Closing

Why participate?

•Develop communication skills

•Hone your legal skills

•‘Objection!’

Misconceptions

•It is time consuming•This is incorrect as the only preparation needed is 1.5 hours before the competition

(which usually lasts for about 2 hours including the judges’ feedback)

•The judges are there to ‘grill’ you•Also incorrect. If anything, the judges are there to help you improve and hone your legal

skills by offering feedback and correcting your mistakes.

•You are on your own•This is possibly the most frightening thought that students have about trial advocacy.•You are most certainly NOT on your own; your witnesses also play an important role in

the competition.•In a sense, you work with your witness as a team to put your case forward.

Competition Schedule

• Registration: Weeks 8 & 9 , Semester 1

• Qualifiers: Week 11, Semester 1

• Workshop: Week 2, Semester 2

• Round 1: Week 3 & 4, Semester 2

• Round 2: Weeks 6 & 7, Semester 2

• Quarter Finals: Week 9, Semester 2

• Semi Finals: Week 10, Semester 2

• Grand Finals: Week 12, Semester 2

External Opportunities

• Successful competitors will be given the opportunity to represent UNSW at external Witness Examination competitions such as:

• ALSA – the Australian Law Students’ Association holds an annual conference in the July holidays. This year it will be in Sydney.

Contact Details

• You can email us at witnessexamination@unswlawsoc.org

•You can call us:Christopher Goutama: 0422 729 606Sharanya Srikanth: 0414 137 664

•Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

David Yang | Vice President (Mooting Competitions)

mooting@unswlawsoc.org

Michael Tran | Vice President (Skills Competitions)

skills@unswlawsoc.org

Kimberley Yoon and Major Zhang | Beginners Mooting Directors

beginner.mooting@unswlawsoc.org

Christopher Goutama and Sharanya Srikanth | Witness Examination Directors

witnessexamination@unswlawsoc.org

Anthony Fong and Michael Pham | Beginners Negotiation Directors

beginners.negotiations@unswlawsoc.org

Bettina Forde and Ivan Luo | Beginners Client Interviewing Directors

beginners.clientinterviewing@unswlawsoc.org

CONTACT DETAILS