The team from Liverpool John Moores University is the winner of this year’s ESU – Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition. It is the first time that this university has won the coveted silver mace.
Satya Chotalia and Sara Anzani beat off Sarah Tandy and Eve Taylor representing Southampton Solent University in the exciting evening final, which was held in the President’s Court of the Royal Courts of Justice last night. In addition to winning this prestigious annual event, the duo are invited to represent the United Kingdom in the bi-annual Commonwealth Moot to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in September
The ESU – Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition, which is now in its thirty- fifth year, attracted entries from 64 teams reflecting a 20% increase on the previous year. The final of the competition was judged this year by a panel chaired by Sir Anthony Colman, a Judge of the Commercial Court, in the High Court, London from 1992 to 2007. The other judges were Roderick Cordara QC and Professor Dan Sarooshi – both members of Essex Court Chambers.
Winner Sara Anzani, who comes from Mold, North Wales said: “This competition has been an amazing experience. Mooting has helped me in the development of my skills and has impacted positively on my studies. I look forward to visiting Nairobi!” Satya Chotalia from Uxbridge is even more delighted with the prospect of visiting Kenya. Although he has never visited Kenya, both his parents were born there and have often talked about introducing their son to the country of their birth. The Commonwealth Moot looks like an excellent opportunity for a family visit. As well as the happy choice of this year’s Commonwealth Moot venue, Satya also acknowledges the many benefits of the experience: “Mooting is fantastic for building confidence and for providing a forum for real analysis of legal problems. I would recommend it to anyone”
In a moot, two pairs of ‘advocates’ argue a fictitious legal appeal case in front of a ‘judge’. To win, you do not necessarily have to win the legal case, but must make the best presentation of your legal arguments. In this year’s final the Liverpool John Moores duo was speaking for the respondents, whilst Southampton Solent acted for the Appellants in the complex but fictional problem of Tate and Truelove v Fishery.
The winners received a silver Mace and a prize of £1,000 each. Their university, Liverpool John Moores received a donation of £1,000. The runners up received “The Scarman Shield”, £750 each and Southampton Solent received £500. For the first time in the competition, the other semi-finalists did not go home empty handed but received cash prizes of £250 each. These were: Andrew Johnson and Brett Staley of Leeds Metropolitan University and Vanessa Long and Anthony Ma of the University of Southampton. The cash prizes were generously donated by Essex Court Chambers where all finalists will also be offered a mini-pupillage.
Anthony Diamond QC, chair of last year’s judges, explains in his foreword to this year’s competition handbook some of the reasons why Essex Court Chambers has supported the mooting competition for the past seven years: “A consistent feature of the professional services offered by members of Essex Court Chambers has been the emphasis placed on the skills of advocacy. This tradition of excellence, both as lawyers and as advocates, makes it wholly appropriate that Chambers now sponsors and helps to organise a prestigious national mooting competition. The profession generally and the Inns of Court in particular have come to recognise the vital importance of advocacy training. It used to be thought sufficient to say that advocates are born, not made. Now, it is generally recognised that effective forensic advocacy is a skill that can be acquired by practical training as well as by hard-worn experience, and handed by one generation of practitioners to another.”
The competition is administered by the ESU, sponsored by Essex Court Chambers and supported by Legal Week as media partners
