UQ wins 2nd major mooting title of 2013

The University of Queensland Law School has added another title to its impressive mooting record, winning the 2013 Sir Harry Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot at the High Court of Australia in Canberra.

The TC Beirne School of Law team – Kate Thorogood (St Lucia), Martin Rustam (Southbank) and Henry Meehan (Albion) – defeated the University of Melbourne Law School in the competition grand final held before High Court of Australia Chief Justice The Honourable Robert French on 13 October.

Mr Rustam described the grand final as an intense but memorable experience.

“To be grilled by the Chief Justice of Australia on a precise matter of constitutional law is an experience that very few law students have had, and to emerge as the competition winners is incredible,” Mr Rustam said.

The result was particularly significant for second-year law student Ms Thorogood, competing in her first mooting competition.

“It’s pretty exciting to beat one of Australia’s highest ranked law schools in this competition,” she said.

“With so much ahead of us, we were pretty overwhelmed at the beginning but lots of practice and time and support from the School and our coaches really gave us an edge.”

Despite having only two months to prepare, the UQ team sailed through the preliminary competition rounds undefeated, before clinching victory over Monash University in the quarter finals and the University of Sydney in the semi finals.

The UQ team also won the best written submissions section of the competition.

Team member Mr Meehan said the team’s achievement was indicative of UQ’s position among the top law schools in Australia.

“It’s excellent to know that choosing to study at UQ in my home city over moving away was the right decision,” Mr Meehan said.

“To have the opportunity to work with past and current students who have the skills and experience to help us to compete at this level makes me very proud to be a UQ law student.”

“At the age of 19, to say that I’ve advocated in the same court as Australia’s best legal professionals is a feeling that’s difficult to describe.”

ABOUT MOOTING

Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal (and sometimes factual) issue or problem against an opposing counsel before a judge, tribunal member or arbitrator. It resembles the experience that a student can expect to have in a court, tribunal or in arbitral proceedings after qualifying as a lawyer. In external mooting competitions there may be a period of several months during which the problems are researched and written submissions prepared.

ABOUT MOOTING AT UQ LAW

The TC Beirne School of Law has entered teams in national and international moot competitions for many years. In 2012 the Law School won four prestigious mooting titles: the Jessup International Law Mooting Competition - Australian champions; Shine Lawyers Torts Mooting Competition; the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot; and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal National Mooting Competition.

In July 2013 UQ retained the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot title after defeating 24 teams in the competition held at the University of Southampton, UK.

Media: Dr Peter Billings 07 3365 7176, p.billings@law.uq.edu.au or Melissa Reynolds 07 65 1454, m.reynolds@law.uq.edu.au.