News Item

Each year the NZ Law Foundation assists student mooting teams’ participation in competitions by funding their travel costs. For almost 20 years, it has supported the following four key mooting competitions annually:

Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition

This year’s competition was held in San Juan (Puerto Rico) 9-12 April, and New Zealand was represented by Andrew McLeod and Luke Sizer from the University of Auckland. They had previously won the Russell McVeagh Client Interviewing Competition entitling them to represent NZ at this event. Despite performing exceptionally well, the New Zealand team were knocked out of the competition when they narrowly lost their semi-final to the Dutch team. Twenty-one countries took part and the ultimate winners were the team from the Irish Republic. Andrew and Luke’s support crew included their coach, Robert Clarke (Auckland), and Associate Professor Selene Mize from the University of Otago who assisted with training sessions.

University of Auckland news article about the 2014 NZ team

NZ Law Foundation awards $15,000 annually for travel to the competition for a two-person team and their coach.

Philip C Jessup International Law Moot

New Zealand’s 2014 team came from University of Auckland and was made up of Nupur Upadhyay, Jeremy Wilson, Gretta Schumacher and Tim Conder. The team earned the right to represent NZ by winning the national inter-university mooting competitions. This was the 55th year for the moot, and 600 teams from over 90 jurisdictions took part, making it an exceptionally challenging event. While the New Zealand team did well to be ranked third out of the 32 teams that went forward to the elimination rounds, they were unfortunately knocked out of the competition when they lost their moot against the team from University of Wuhan (China). Their coaches were Associate Professor Caroline Foster from the University of Auckland and Isaac Hikaka from the law firm Lee Salmon Long. The overall competition winners were from the University of Queensland.

The Jessup Moot is the largest, oldest and most prestigious competition of its kind. It is held in Washington DC annually; this year from 6-12 April.

University of Auckland news article about the 2014 NZ team

NZ Law Foundation awards $30,000 annually for a four-person university team and two coaches to travel to the competition in Washington DC.

International Negotiation Competition

University of Otago students Tom Jemson and Henry Benson-Pope won the Buddle Findlay National Negotiation Competition in September 2013, giving them the right to represent New Zealand at the 2014 International Negotiation Competition. This was held at the Handong International Law School in Pohang, South Korea in June 23-27.

Their coach, Associate Professor Selene Mize, said the team did well to come third in a tough competition that saw the New Zealand team negotiating against both first and second place getters. The USA team took first prize and Switzerland came second from a field of 18 teams.

University of Otago news item about the NZ team

NZ Law Foundation awards $15,000 annually for travel for a two-person team and a coach to travel to the country hosting the event.

New Zealand Law Foundation National Family Law Moot

The 2014 competition for this annual Dunedin event is scheduled to run on 6 September. Students from five universities, two from each, will have the opportunity to compete for the Mahony Cup. The Cup was donated by retired Principal Family Court Judge Patrick Mahony to recognise the importance of fostering and developing advocacy in the Family Court. The moot problem is always a family law one. The mooters prepare a synopsis of argument and are questioned by two judges who provide detailed feedback on their performance. The competition is aimed at ensuring a strong group of family law advocates emerge from New Zealand universities.

Details about the 2014 winners will be added to this news item after the 6 September event.

University of Otago news item about the 2013 winners

NZ Law Foundation awards up to $12,000 for travel and competition costs for teams from all NZ law schools to compete in Dunedin.