Mooting: What and Why? A Mooting Officer’s Guide.
Most students interested in law will, by now, have watched the beloved BBC programme ‘Silk’ and watched Martha Costello in awe. She turns up to court in a convertible, sunglasses on, marches into court, shouts at a client who has done something stupid (again), walks into the court room and tears apart the learned counsel (barristers) for the defence’s submissions by plucking arguments out of thin air at the last possible second, her client is found not guilty, job done. This may even have inspired some students to want to be the fierce advocate that Martha Costello is.
Well, mooting gives you the opportunity to achieve this. The only difference is that mooting is realistic and, unlike Silk, you actually have to abide by the rules of the court. But in short, mooting is taking part in mock court trials and it is a great opportunity to practise your advocacy. Most moot trials at undergraduate level follow a situation where a point of law is in dispute in the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court, and the appellants will be arguing for a change in the law, or that the law was applied incorrectly, while the respondent will be arguing the other side.
To provide a better idea of what is involved in mooting, it may be helpful to visit my procedure for each moot. Though different students may have slightly different procedures, depending on what works best for them, most of the procedure will, largely, be the same.
Research
About two weeks before the moot, I begin my research, reading the cases provided in the question and then conducting further research into cases which might support my arguments and the opposition’s arguments. I prefer freeing up a few days to do this, rather than splitting the research into chunks of different days amidst other University work.
Case Bundles
Having done this, I decide what my arguments are going to be and which parts of which cases I am going to use to support my arguments. I then create a skeleton argument, which is a one page A4 document with a very brief summary of the arguments and the authorities (cases, legislation etc) I will use to support it, about 5 days before the moot. I then put together three case bundles, one for the opposition counsel, one for the judge, and one for myself and my partner for the moot, containing the skeleton argument and all the cases relied on. Small sticky-tabs are very helpful for locating the passages of text you will be using! These are normally exchanged three working days before the moot.
The Moot
In the days before the moot, I will have been going over my speech repeatedly in my room, and reading over the opposition’s submissions. I also go over my own submissions, thinking of any questions the judge may ask. Then, on the day, I stand up and give my speech which normally lasts around 10 minutes, including questions from the judges, depending on the time limit. There may also be a right to reply at the end.
Why should I moot?
For some people, advocacy and public speaking seems to come to them naturally. I, however, was not one of those people. When I mooted for the first time in my second year of law, I could barely get my words out. I was unprepared and nervous. However, I got through it and I developed from strength to strength. After completing just three rounds to make the final, it was as though mooting had become second nature. This is as a result of my practise and the helpful feedback I had received from those who had judged the previous moots.
The benefit of improving advocacy skills is, therefore, clear. This benefit has also transferred into other areas. I am now able to complete public speaking much more confidently than I could prior to mooting. In addition, I feel that I am better able to handle interviews because I have become accustomed to thinking on my feet and developing a quick but effective response to questions from the judges.
While some parts of mooting, such as the putting together of the case bundles, is somewhat dull and tedious, other elements are often exciting and interesting. For example, while the thought of speaking on a point of law in front of the judge may sound daunting, many people who thought they would feel this way enjoyed the experience and the sense of adrenaline and achievement that comes with it. You may also find yourself learning about new areas of law, for example, my most recent external moot revolved around a point of employment law.
Finally, mooting provides students with a huge amount of skills to put on application forms. Research, public speaking, the ability to persuade and problem solving are just some of many skills developed during mooting, all of which are key skills which all employers, whether law or non-law, will be looking for. This will also give you another thing to say for those competency questions that we all look at so begrudgingly.
Conclusion
This is an explanation of mooting, what it is, and why you should consider mooting. If you would like to know more, contact us at mooting.lawsociety@cardiff.ac.uk.
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