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Kiwi mooters put in strong performance overseas
New Zealand finished an impressive 36th out of 529 teams at an international mooting competition held in Washington DC.
The Auckland University team of Sally Trafford and Hannah Yiu won the Bell Gully National Mooting Competition in 2008 and were joined by Natasha Lewis to represent New Zealand at the 2009 Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
The team competed in four preliminary rounds, beating teams from Vietnam, Mexico and Italy and losing to the London School of Economics, who progressed to the advanced rounds and finished 8th overall.
Sally called the experience "a fantastic learning opportunity" while Hannah believed the competition "significantly enhanced" their written and oral advocacy skills.
Mooting enables students to research legal issues and test and develop their skills in a courtroom setting. Using a fictitious case, students present their argument before a judge, or panel of judges, and are assessed on the style and content of their argument and their replies to questions from the bench.
Bell Gully is pleased to sponsor the National Mooting Competition and provide financial assistance to the team selected to compete in Washington. The Auckland University team also received a $35,000 grant from the New Zealand Law Foundation to enable them to compete at the competition.
