Future Lawyer Blog

The best yet? The Mooting Year at City 2016-2017

Well….what a year we’ve had! As ever, the internal mooting competitions were hotly contested with some incredible performances by students.

In the City Scholars Moot, first year LLB student Kareem Tamam won in the final, arguing for the respondent in a case about the duty of care owed by a cricket umpire. Najma Ali was runner-up and the two other finalists were Zehra Hassan and Nigar Ali. The moot was judged by Lord Sumption at the Supreme Court. Read the finalists accounts of the competition via Lawbore.

Promissory estoppel was the focus of the GDL Moot final this year, and Kate Strange  came out on top with James Gardner the runner-up.

Katie Lines and Poppy Rimington-Pounder made up the four finalists in this formidable competition. Lord Mance kindly agreed to judge for us once again at the Supreme Court, describing the four as “extremely polished mooters tackling a very difficult area of the law“, being impressed at how “fluent and unflappable under questioning” they were.

The moot for City law postgraduates, the Senior Moot was won by BPTC student Anirudh Mandagere, with James Hamblen the runner-up. The final was judged by Barry Denyer-Green, Barrister at Falcon Chambers and Rt Hon Lord Gill, retired Lord President and Lord Justice General of Scotland. Lucile Taylor and Jonathan Scott also competed at the final (held again at the Supreme Court). The judges complemented all four on the extremely high standard of advocacy achieved. Take a look at the full story via the City website.

Rt Hon Lord Gill, Anirudh, James and Barry Denyer-Green at the UKSC

We entered more external competitions than ever before: OUP/BPP Moot, UKLSA Moot, ESU Moot, London Mooting League (new this year!), European Human Rights Moot, European Law Moot Court Competition, Oxford Intellectual Property Moot (well done to Oscar Davies, Rose-Marie de Lemos and Fern Horsfield-Schonhut who reached the final stages of the competition!), University of Southampton Insurance Law Moot, Lecicester Medical Law Moot, LSE LGBT Featherstone Moot, Queens University Belfast/Herbert Smith Freehills Corporate Law Mooting Championship, Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Competition AND the Landmark Chambers Competition….PHEW!!!

Outside of mooting we also participated in the Blackstones/University of Hertfordshire National Criminal Advocacy Competition (Hannah Webb and Lucy Waterstone reaching the final!), the CEDR Negotiation Competition and the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Arbitration Weekend.

Real highlights included:

Winning the European Law Moot Court Competition

The City team included GDL students Ben Lewy, Douglas Grant, Miguel Rodriguez-Correa and BPTC student Margherita Cornaglia. They were coached by Niall Coghlan, a City Law School alumnus, who won the European Human Rights Competition back in 2014. Read the full story on the City website as well as Margherita’s account of the exciting times in Luxembourg on Lawbore.

Winning the University of Southampton Insurance Law Moot

City GDL students Nick Wright and Mark Baldock did brilliantly to win this competition with no prior knowledge of insurance law. Other institutions participating included Kings, Southampton, Queen Mary, Middle Temple and the University of Law. In the final they were judged by Lady Justice Gloster, Tony Baumgartner (Clyde & Co) and Peter McDonald Eggers QC (7KBW) at the Supreme Court.

Thanks to Megan Evans, a student at Southampton, for the photograph of Nick and Mark with the judges. The competition was sponsored by Peter McDonald Eggers QC (KBW), Clyde & Co and the British Insurance Law Association Charitable Trust. Read more on the story elsewhere on Lawbore…

Winning the QUB & HSF Corporate Law Mooting Championship

Ben Lewy and Douglas Grant triumphed in Belfast, judged by 3 QCs and the Honourable Justice Keegan (Northern Ireland’s first ever female High Court judge), winning 4-0 in a unanimous decision. The organising force behind the moot, Chris Mallon (PhD Candidate and Subject Tutor at QUB), said that Ben and Douglas were so exceptional as a team that the judges refused to award an extra £100 for the ‘Best Advocate’, deciding instead to split it between them. Read Douglas’s account of the competition on Lawbore.

Winning the Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Moot

James Gardner and Edward Gilmore were one of 22 pairs entering this annual weekend competition at Inner Temple. In the final they faced a team from the University of Dundee and were judged by five judges in a moot pivoting around the issues of proprietary estoppel. Find out more about James and Eddie’s experiences on Lawbore  and read the report by the Inter-Varsity Mooting Presidents in the Easter edition of InnerView (see p.6).

Winning the London Mooting League

This relaunched mooting league (anyone remember the London Universities Moot Shield?) kicked off this year with 7 teams participating: LSE. Kings College, Brunel, UCL, BPP, Queen Mary and City. After the group stages (3 moots) City topped the table with 203.5 points (nearest competitor UCL with 189.5).  The semi-finals and final took place on the 15th March 2017 at Gray’s Inn. The City team were William Vaudry, Georgia Lassoff, Sarah-Jane Ewart and Harry Winter. Will and Sarah-Jane took the reins for the final after beating Kings in the semis and then won the whole competition.

Winning the Kingsland Cup & Prize Moot (Francis Taylor Building)

A duo from City also won the Kingsland Cup and Prize Moot, an annual moot run by the chambers of Francis Taylor Building. The final took place at the Old Bailey and was judged by Supreme Court Justice, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore. The City duo were Harriet Fitzsimons and Sarah-Jane Ewart. City also won this competition last year: Esther Drabkin-Reiter and Ryan Ferro.

Sarah-Jane also featured in one of our teams participating in the LSE-Featherstone Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Moot, winning a Best Advocacy Prize. Find out more about the team’s experience ….

Winning the UKELA Moot

City students did very well in the UKELA Moot this year, BPTC student Leyla Garahan winning the Senior Moot with her partner Gayatri Parthasarathy (a University of Law student), and GDL students Jonathan Welch and Helen Rodger taking the prize for the Junior Moot.

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