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!