1. COMPETITIONS INFORMATION SESSION 2015

2. ASHURST BEGINNERS MOOTING COMPETITION Directors: Kimberly Yoon and Major Zhang

3. A moot is a simulated appeal court hearing In teams of two, you will : act as barristers in a fictional legal dispute prepare legal arguments, write your submissions and present them orally present your case before a bench of judges, who will interrupt you in order to: Clarify your arguments Understand how your arguments fit with the relevant area of law Clarify the facts and decisions of cases you have cited Ask about the fact scenario Mooting is a legal conversation, unlike debating or public speaking. Your aim is to persuade the bench of the merits of your client’s case

4. Advocacy and public speaking Understanding of the law (often before treatment in class) Legal research Legal argument and writing Case reading/analysis

5. You are given 5 days to prepare For instance, if your Moot is on Monday night, you receive the problem on Wednesday night Written submissions are to be emailed to judges by midnight before your moot After this, you have the day to practice your oral submissions and find/print relevant pages of cases (you do not need to print entire cases or find casebooks) Four mooters will speak for a maximum of 20 minutes each, followed by the judges’ decision and feedback. The actual moot is expected to last about 1.5 hours

6. External Competitions: Shine Torts Moot ALSA Moot Competitions AAT Administrative Law Moot Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot Jessup International Law Moot Competition Vis International Commercial Arbitration Competition Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Competition Oxford Intellectual Property Moot Comp Ashurst Private Law Moot (run by the UNSW Law Society )

7. All moots begin at 6pm Registration closes: 15 th of March Round 1: Weeks 4–6, Semester 1 Round 2: Weeks 10–12, Semester 1 Quarter Finals: Week 3, Semester 2 Semi Finals: Week 8, Semester 2 Grand Final: Week 10, Semester 2

8. The online registration form can be accessed through this link: http://www.tinyurl.com/beginnersrego You may register by yourself, or with a partner. Please fill out one form for the two of you if you are mooting with a partner. If you register individually we will match you to another law student with similar preferences

9. Contact Details You can email us at beginner.mooting@unswlawsoc.orgbeginner.mooting@unswlawsoc.org You can call us: Kimberly Yoon: 0422 351 023 Major Zhang: 0420 520 233 Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

10. BEGINNERS CLIENT INTERVIEWING COMPETITION Directors: Bettina Forde and Ivan Luo

11. When a lawyer first meets a client, he/she needs to interview the client and gather facts about their problem in order to understand the client’s needs and assist the client in making an informed decision. Such an interview is the setting of the client interviewing competition. An essential skill that any lawyer needs when meeting clients.

12. A team of 2 competitors interviewing a client (a volunteer actor) in front of a judge (or judges in final rounds). Duration :

13. Competitors will receive their client memorandum a day before their scheduled round via email. The memo briefly indicates the general nature of the case. Thus, competitors should aim to extract as much information from the client as possible.

14. During the interview: Often clients will fail to disclose important information regarding the case. The objective is to tease out relevant information from the client by asking relevant questions. At the end you need to summarise the relevant facts; and You must offer clients advice as to what their current position is at law, what their next step should be and whether there is sufficient evidence for a course of action, or more if research is needed.

15. Oral communication Teamwork Time management and thinking under pressure Establishing a professional working relationship with the client Ability to extract relevant facts from the client and identify the important issues Recognising and dealing with moral and ethical issues

16. Client Interviewing requires the least preparation compared to other skills competitions – Read the handbook – Read tips on how to conduct and structure an interview – Discuss strategies and prepare general questions – Practice with your partner – Briefly research the relevant area of law

17. When you receive the memo you might want to research on the particular area of law e.g. criminal, contract, tort, family – just general research. Don’t need actual technical legal knowledge. Research is usually for the purpose of providing solutions and options at the end of the interview – something for the client to take away.

18. Opportunities to compete in specific external competitions e.g. ALSA or UNSW’s Intervarsity Competition Exposure to practising lawyers – insights into real life practice. Opportunity to improve performance based on judges’ constructive feedback. Provides practical experience, not acquired in the setting of a classroom

19. Semester 1: – Registration: Weeks 12 & 13 Semester 2: – Round 1: Weeks 2 & 3 – Round 2: Weeks 5 & 6 – Quarter finals: Week 8 – Semi finals: Week 10 – Grand final: Week 12

20. Contact Details You can email us at beginners.clientinterviewing@unswlawsoc.org beginners.clientinterviewing@unswlawsoc.org You can call us: Bettina Forde: 0406 456 189 Ivan Luo: 0434 876 068 Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

21. HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS BEGINNERS NEGOTIATION COMPETITION Directors: Anthony Fong and Michael Pham

22. It is a meeting between two legal teams, on behalf of their respective clients, with the intention of resolving a dispute. Negotiations are important in the legal sphere, since if performed successfully it can result in litigation being avoided.

23. You will compete in a team of two Three days before your allocated competition date you will receive an email from us containing three items: 1.The party to which you will be representing 2.Document containing general information 3.Document containing confidential information

24. On the date of the competition: – You will commence negotiations which will last 50 minutes (with an optional 5 minute break) – Afterwards, one team will leave the room whilst the other team will engage in a ten minute self reflection of their performance with the judge – After both teams have completed their reflection, both teams will be called back in and are provided with feedback from the judge

25. To be eligible you must: – Be a UNSW law student. – Be a 1 st year undergraduate UG or JD student. – Not have competed in any negotiations competition before. – Not have completed the dispute resolution course.

26. Light compared to the other competitions (about an hour or two preparation) The time before the competition should be used in two ways: – Familiarising yourself with the facts (four pages) – Identifying your client’s goals, issues and possible solutions Most of the work is undertaken on the night during the course of the negotiation

27. Semester one: – Registration: Weeks 12 & 13 Semester two: – Round 1: Weeks 4 and 5 – Round 2: Weeks 7 and 8 – Quarter finals: Week 10 – Semi finals: Week 11 – Grand finals: Week 12

28. Creativity Problem Solving Communication Team Work

29. Develops the skills mentioned previously, which are relevant to any career Provides you practical experience, not acquired in your core law subjects Advanced negotiations Australian Law Students Association Resume

30. Contact Details You can email us at beginners.negotiations@unswlawsoc.orgbeginners.negotiations@unswlawsoc.org You can call us: Anthony Fong: 0423 705 432 Michael Pham: 0432 350 423 Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

31. WITNESS EXAMINATION COMPETITION Directors: Christopher Goutama and Sharanya Srikanth

32. It is similar to high school mock trials As a Competitor: You will be required to have a witness – This can be anyone from UNSW, they do not necessarily have to be a law student For the main rounds (from preliminary), you will be assigned to either the defence or prosecution and given the problem 1.5 hours before the competition begins You will be competing against a fellow student in a court-room scenario You will be judged by an experienced solicitor or barrister – They will provide you with feedback at the end of the competition

33. Competition structure: – One qualifier round – Two preliminary rounds – Quarter Finals – Semi-Finals – Grand Final Process: – Collect problem – 1.5 hours to prepare  Witness – Opening – Examination-in-chief – Cross-examination – Closing

34. Competition structure: – One qualifier round – Two preliminary rounds – Quarter Finals – Semi-Finals – Grand Final Process: – Collect problem – 1.5 hours to prepare  Witness – Opening – Examination-in-chief – Cross-examination – Closing

35. Develop communication skills Hone your legal skills ‘Objection!’

36. It is time consuming This is incorrect as the only preparation needed is 1.5 hours before the competition (which usually lasts for about 2 hours including the judges’ feedback) The judges are there to ‘grill’ you Also incorrect. If anything, the judges are there to help you improve and hone your legal skills by offering feedback and correcting your mistakes. You are on your own This is possibly the most frightening thought that students have about trial advocacy. You are most certainly NOT on your own; your witnesses also play an important role in the competition. In a sense, you work with your witness as a team to put your case forward.

37. Registration: Weeks 8 & 9, Semester 1 Qualifiers: Week 11, Semester 1 Workshop: Week 2, Semester 2 Round 1: Week 3 & 4, Semester 2 Round 2: Weeks 6 & 7, Semester 2 Quarter Finals: Week 9, Semester 2 Semi Finals: Week 10, Semester 2 Grand Finals: Week 12, Semester 2

38. Successful competitors will be given the opportunity to represent UNSW at external Witness Examination competitions such as: ALSA – the Australian Law Students’ Association holds an annual conference in the July holidays. This year it will be in Sydney.

39. Contact Details You can email us at witnessexamination@unswlawsoc.orgwitnessexamination@unswlawsoc.org You can call us: Christopher Goutama: 0422 729 606 Sharanya Srikanth: 0414 137 664 Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns

40. David Yang | Vice President (Mooting Competitions) mooting@unswlawsoc.org Michael Tran | Vice President (Skills Competitions) skills@unswlawsoc.org Kimberley Yoon and Major Zhang | Beginners Mooting Directors beginner.mooting@unswlawsoc.org Christopher Goutama and Sharanya Srikanth | Witness Examination Directors witnessexamination@unswlawsoc.org Anthony Fong and Michael Pham | Beginners Negotiation Directors beginners.negotiations@unswlawsoc.org Bettina Forde and Ivan Luo | Beginners Client Interviewing Directors beginners.clientinterviewing@unswlawsoc.org CONTACT DETAILS