Lawson Mooting Competition – Matthew Sellwood

Clara making her submissions

On Friday 17th May, four of the best mooters that Inner Temple has to offer competed in the final of the Lawson Mooting Competition. Drawn from over eighty initial entrants over three previous knockout rounds, these four students had certainly had plenty of practice!

Jenny Brenton, Georgina Bryan and Clara Hamer are all studying the BPTC at The City Law School, whilst James Evans is a BPTC student at BPP Holborn.

Presiding over the moot was Master Christopher Brougham QC, of South Square Chambers. Usually an expert insolvency practitioner, he was afforded the opportunity to turn his skills towards human rights legislation on this occasion.

The moot problem concerned the very topical issue of freedom of belief and the right to manifest that belief, which has recently been discussed by the European Court of Human Rights in Eweida and Others v United Kingdom.

Finalists and judge, Christopher Brougham QC

After a close fought series of twenty minute submissions from the mooters, Master Brougham QC chose Clara Hamer as the outstanding mooter of the evening, praising the way in which her submissions ranged persuasively over both legal and policy issues. Whilst he was not ultimately convinced by her arguments, he did state that he was within a hair's breadth of agreement, despite the fact that her initial legal ground was weaker than some of her opponents.

Clara received her first prize from Julia Townend, a representative of the Inner Temple Junior Bar Association and a tenant at 4 Paper Buildings. Every other finalist also received a prize, and the standard of the final was uniformly excellent. On this showing, the future of the Bar is promising indeed!

Blackstone Mooting Competition 2013 – Joanne Moss

Winner Christopher Pulman (left) with Judge of the Final, Mr Tom Weisselberg (Blackstones Chambers)

The 2013 Blackstone Mooting Competition at City Law School for Full-time Students has been won by Christopher Pulman, shown holding the trophy presented by the Moot Judge, Mr Tom Weisselberg, who is a member of Blackstone Chambers and a former student of the CLS.

The Finals took place on Wednesday 15th May, and all contestants are to be congratulated on their performances. The Runner-up was Madeline Dixon, and the other excellent competitors were Charles Streeten and Gregory Ashurst. All these postgraduate students produced impressive performances, especially in response to the questions of the Moot Judge. Well done!

We also thank our Moot Judge most warmly for his welcoming attitude and for the enormous amount of time and effort that he had put into the preparation for the task of judging.

We are kindly sponsored by

Blackstone Chambers, London, with discretionary cash prizes; and
Oxford University Press who offer to the winner one copy of either Blackstone's Criminal Practice or Blackstone's Civil Practice.

In addition, the winner will receive £500 from the City Law School.

Legal Biography: A National Training Day – Alex Giles

SOAS treasures! Credit: born1945

Legal biographers mixed with librarians, research students and other academics to create a fascinating day at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) on 15th May. Organised by the IALS and the British Library along with the Socio-Legal Studies Organisation this was a chance to share resource information and biographical methodologies; encouraging a wider view of legal study beyond the traditional practitioner approach, and providing on opportunity for some good old fashioned story-telling…

We heard from writers of legal biography such as David Sugarman from Lancaster University who’s written on Albert Venn Dicey and the U.S’s Morton Horwitz aka “Mort the Tort”, and Mara Malagodi (LSE) who is currently working on an investigation into leading constitutionalist Sir Ivor Jennings’ time in Asia; fearlessly researching in Nepal. My personal favourite was Rosemary Auchmuty’s paper on her article from Legal Studies entitled “Whatever Happened to Miss Bebb?” (link only available to City students) – the hidden story of the first woman to take the Law Society to court in 1913 over the non-admittance of women. Rosemary proved to be a veritable Miss Marple as she uncovered the twists and turns of this courageous and ultimately tragic woman’s life; a touching as well as hugely entertaining portrait.

Les Moran from Birkbeck and Linda Mulcahy (LSE) provided much food for thought over the idea of pictures as biographical data – in fact images appear sometimes to be the only source of information when there is no historical institutional record of certain people, for example Women at Court (except as defendants or witnesses), or where the subject of the particular research is “hidden” such as sexuality. This combination of interpretation from an art history perspective and traditional legal scholarship really pushed the boundaries.

Judah Benjamin Credit: Mathew Brady

The vast array of sources that are available for those interested in legal biography were shared by some of our leading librarians in the nation’s legal and socio-legal collections. Their remits are often quite different: from essentially the records of running a legal institution such as Lincoln’s Inn (represented by head librarian Guy Holborn), or Canon Law going back centuries such as found at Giles Mandelbrote’s Lambeth Palace Library, to the vast collections within collections at the British Library – encompassing such things as the private papers of legal elites, oral histories, public and institutional records, published biographies etc etc etc; nobly explained by Socio-Legal Curator Jon Sims, and his colleague at the India Office Records, Antonia Moon.

Within all the collections presented there were some choice nuggets such as Lincoln’s Inn’s collection of photo portraits, or SOAS’s archive of the controversial marriage of Botswana’s first President Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams; a great cause celebre of the time related by Susannah Rayner. I also found out from Guy Holborn that Judah Benjamin (of Benjamin’s Sale of Goods fame) was the first Attorney General of the US Confederacy in the 1860s, and later in exile was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn before writing his classic treatise. Who would have thought it?

The day was not only very informative but thoroughly enjoyable, and showed the great potential for legal study and research within any number of academic or literary fields – the possibilities are endless…

Many thanks to Alex Giles, Information Assistant at Grays Inn Place Library and volunteer at the British Library.

“Women in positions of power can really make a difference” – Margaret Hodge MP

The most recent City Law School Alumnae Network event (CLAN) featured The Right Honourable Margaret Hodge MP speaking on Women in Public Life. Margaret Hodge is the Member of Parliament for Barking and Dagenham, a position she has held for more than 17 years. In June 2010, she was elected Chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

CLAN is the network for female graduates of The City Law School. The group meets twice-yearly and provides a unique opportunity for alumnae to meet like-minded solicitors, barristers and other law graduates from across the UK. The network also provides an encouraging environment in which to discuss issues facing women in the modern profession, share experiences and offer mutual support.

On the evening of the 25th April, Margaret Hodge covered topics including the impact made by women in positions of power, the importance of networking and how to rebuild local trust in mainstream politics. Fear not, if you're kicking yourself for missing out, you can watch it via City's YouTube channel.