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We will be holding our annual training session and introductory Seminar, the How to Moot Seminar, this evening at the Old Senate Room! Syed Adil, the President alongside the Master of Moots, Dr Jonathan Ainslie, will be working through the Main Faculty Moot 2022/23 moot problem, explaining how to break down a moot problem, conduct legal research, draft and deliver your submissions. We hope that it will be an instructive guide to the art of mooting and hope to see many of you there!
The fictitious matrimonial property case was centred around Mr and Mrs Morrison who were undergoing a divorce following a 12-year marriage due to the parties' non-cohabitation for a period of 2 years or more. The parties had agreed to a post-nuptial agreement regarding the assets of the parties but Mr Morrison was seeking to have the agreement set aside. Our 4 finalists presented their arguments before 2 judges from Patience and Buchan, Partners Lorna Buchan and Ashley Simpson who found in favour of the defender, Mrs Morrison, represented by Candace and Emily. In a surprise move, Patience and Buchan have awarded all 4 finalists summer work experience! Partner Lorna Buchan had this to about the mooters: Once again congratulations to Candace and Emily winners of the final. It was a hard decision to make as the standard of preparation and advocacy skills displayed by Melina and Carmen on behalf of the pursuer and Candace and Emily on behalf of the defender was excellent. Ashley and I were impressed at the amount of work that had clearly gone into preparing the submissions made by each counsel. And whilst Candace and Emily had “the edge”, Patience & Buchan are delighted to offer work experience within our office to each of the finalists. We wish all four students the very best in their future legal career
We would like to take this opportunity to again thank Patience and Buchan for sponsoring the moot and Partners Lorna Buchan and Ashley Simpson, for their time, insightful remarks and being so kind as to offer work experience not just to the winners of the moot but also the runners-up. If you would like to get involved with the Family Law Moot and moot in the future, or other internal moots, follow us on social media to receive regular updates! With another AGM concluded, we have bid our farewells to the Committee of 2021-2022 and welcomed in our new Committee for 2022-2023. This year's AGM was held in a hybrid fashion with members voting in person in the Old Senate Room as well as virtually. President Grace Walker briefed the members of our successes over the last year including the biggest turn out in our annual Staff v Student Moot as well as one of the highest memberships of any law society on campus. Chief amongst our achievements was the relaunch of the Family Law Moot, sponsored by Patience and Buchan. The Aberdeen specialist family law firm has very kindly offered to not just provide the moot problem and 2 solicitors to judge the final, but have also offered work experience to the winning team of mooters at their offices. A first in the Mooting Society's history. With a few constitutional amendments made, including introducing a non-voting Committee position for a staff member of the School of Law to assist in training mooters, voting moved on to electing a new Committee. The results are as follows:
President: Syed M. Humaid Adil Vice-President: Melina Otifeh Treasurer: Harine Raaj Secretary: William McGoldrick Social Secretary: Beth Parry Senior External Moot Coordinator: Nivethitha Mathavan Senior Internal Moot Coordinator: Iona Pernthaller Junior External Moot Coordinator: Sonya Jones Junior Internal Moot Coordinator: Fan Faro Master of Moots (Non-voting): Dr Jonathan Ainslie Congratulations to those elected, and many thanks to the outgoing Committee! After a narrow victory over Kent in Round 2 of the ESU-Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition 2022, Aberdeen lost out on a place in the Quarter-Finals following a defeat at the hands of London Metropolitan in Round 3 of the competition. Third-year and Second-year accelerated law students, Syed M. Humaid Adil and Cameron Fox respectively, faced off against two London Met GDL mooters in a UK Supreme Court case concerning a Confiscation Order requested under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. In representing the appellant, the Aberdeen team had the unenvious position of arguing against the confiscation of the remuneration received by a fraudster, who after lying on his CV about his education and previous employment, landed a lucrative appointment at a charity in a managerial position. In a case that had striking parallels to CV-fraudster Mike Ross in the hit legal drama Suits, the Aberdeen team successful won on the law, having their appeal allowed on their 2nd Ground of disproportionality but lost on the advocacy to an impressive display by the London Met team. The judge, Christopher Kessling (Vice-Dean at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy), had this to say about Syed's performance in the moot: Your advocacy was really excellent. I’ve got to say that. [Y]our preparation was exceptional and preparation is the foundation of good advocacy, anything that is built upon rocky foundations is, as we know, crumbles and falls away and your preparation I thought was extraordinarily good. I thought your analysis was extraordinarily good. You started off very professionally, with a nice clear voice, and I thought you dealt with the preliminaries very well, asking if I wanted a summary of the facts, asking - and I was thankful for this - if you could dispense with case citations. [Y]our eye contact was excellent throughout. [...] I thought you dealt with questions really well. I felt you considered them, you took time to think about your answers, your brain was clearly ahead of your mouth and you were very helpful and I felt you were being helpful and that is a good thing for a judge. [...] In terms of your right of reply, I think your analysis was excellent, so I have got to say a huge congratulations to you. ESU-Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition 2022: Round 1 Win for Aberdeen versus Dundee25/1/2022
This Tuesday saw Third and Second-year law students, Syed M. Humaid Adil and Daniel McKernan respectively, declared winners in their Round 1 match-up of the ESU-Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition 2022. Aberdeen's first round was an appeal before the UK Supreme Court against fellow Scottish university Dundee, represented by Second-year law students Isla Macleod and Samuel C. Varcarcel. The moot was on an area of English tort law - vicarious liability - judged by Professor S. Bailey, Professor of Public Law at the University of Nottingham, who kindly made time to judge the moot. The ESU-Essex Court Chambers Moot is one of the largest moots within the United Kingdom with 57 universities participating. The ESU moot features teams competing over a number of rounds on problems from any core area of English law such as criminal law, contract, tort (or delict), company and commercial law, constitutional law, employment law, consumer protection law, EU law and any other area of law based on a UK statute. While Rounds 1 through to 3 and the Quarter-Finals are going to be held online this year, the Semi-Finals and Finals will be held in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. This year Aberdeen's team are hoping to best the Society's performance last year to Round 3 with the aim of winning the competition which the University of Aberdeen last did back in 1998.
Aberdeen's team had a difficult job arguing that the relationship between the bouncer and the nightclub was that of an independent contractor-client and not employer-employee but found better luck with their second ground of appeal that the bouncer's actions fell outwith the scope of his employment. Professor S. Bailey ruled that while the relationship was sufficiently akin to employment, his actions were outwith the scope of employment and therefore the appeal was allowed.
Professor Bailey had this to say about the mooters, "You have all done extremely well! In terms of features that I wish to commend you clearly indulged in diligent research and have immersed yourself pretty well in the facts of the case." We would like to take this opportunity to again thank Professor Bailey for their time and insightful remarks. Best of luck to the two mooters going forward to the Round 2 moots in which the University of Aberdeen will be facing off against the University of Kent. If you would like to get involved with the ESU-Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition and represent the University of Aberdeen in the future, or other external moots, follow us on social media to receive regular updates! The Lord Jones Mooting Competition, an annual inter-varsity mooting competition hosted by the University of Dundee and featuring teams from across Scotland, has begun its 2022 chapter. The University of Aberdeen Mooting Society is proud to submit two teams of mooters for the second year in a row to the competition. Today, the mooters from the Society got together virtually with the Coordinators, and last year's Quarter-Finalists, to go over the moot problem, a Scots Criminal Law scenario. Notably, this year's moot will be held in-person at the University of Dundee on the 19th of February 2022, being the first in-person external the Society has participated in since before the start of the Pandemic.
The law relating to whether an individual commits an offence by culpably and recklessly endangering just themselves and to what extent the vague statutory definition of an offensive weapons extends to, is far from certain. This case therefore raises important contemporary issues of criminal law. It will be an exciting (and no doubt daunting) prospect for our mooters to dust off their 1st Year Winter Semester notes on Scots Criminal Law and prepare their submissions for this moot.
If you would like to get involved with the Lord Jones Moot and represent the University of Aberdeen in the future, or other external moots, follow us on social media to receive regular updates! The BPP Advocate of the Year Moot is a near one of a kind moot within the United Kingdom. Unlike most moots which concern points of law or appeal, the BPP moot features teams taking part in the other part of advocacy, Cross-Examinations and Examinations in Chief. With actual actors playing the part of clients, witnesses, defendants and victims, and trained legal professionals taking the part of the judges, the BPP moot gives a unique insight into the world of advocacy for budding advocates. This year being the first year that the University of Aberdeen Mooting Society has submitted students to the BPP Moot, Fiona Lindenbach, a 1st Year Accelerated LL.B. student succeeded in beating out 50 other mooters to take a place in the top 20 mooters. While she missed out on reaching the Grand Finals (top 16 mooters), she is on the reserve list and so should one of the Grand Finalist mooters be unable to compete, Fiona will have the opportunity to test her advocacy skills before the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court in London. We wish her all the best! Here's what Fiona had to say about her participation in the Moot:
The Judge described Fiona's pre-trial Conference as "impressive" with her "introduction being particularly brilliant and developed a rapport with the client easily. Establishing that rapport is so key to be able to give your client the advice that you would need to from a professional point of view need to give them.” With regards to Fiona's Cross-Examination, the Judge remarked that, "I noticed something that you did which is quite advanced when it comes to cross examination, which is that you departed intentionally from asking a leading question to asking a non-leading question because the answer could not have ever led you somewhere you didn’t want you to, which is why it was a really tactically sound thing to do.”
If you would like to get involved with the BPP Advocate of the Year Moot and represent the University of Aberdeen, or other external moots, follow us on social media to receive regular updates! We have some exciting news!
After a hiatus of nine years, the University of Aberdeen Mooting Society is restarting a blog, moving over from our previous website to this one hosted by Weebly. Our posts will continue the general trend from the previous blog regarding competitions our mooters take part in as well as events hosted by the Society. We have exciting plans for this page and hope to expand to a number of different areas, including a podcast covering an introduction to mooting for new members of the Society. We hope that you will enjoy our insights on our new site as well as our future successes! |
