national speed mooting competition
22nd february 2020
bpp manchester
About the competition
national speed mooting competition 8
About the competition
The National Speed Mooting Competition was initially founded by criminal solicitor, John Dove, in the 2012/2013 academic year. There have now been 7 annual competitions. The competition is open to any law undergraduate or GDL student nationwide. Participants enter as individuals rather than teams and represent themselves and not their university. There is therefore no limit on the number of students that can enter from any given institution.
The moot problem will be based on a simple point of law. Submissions will be limited to 7 minutes per mooter (hence the name Speed Mooting). This will include the time for intervention. Judges are encouraged to ask only one question, unless there is a specific need for more questioning. The bundle will be sent to participants the day before the competition to replicate the common occurrence in practice when a barrister or solicitor receives a brief the day before trial. The bundle will include all case law and legislation. Pre drafted skeleton arguments will be included in the bundle. This means that the competition will not involve any drafting or legal research and mooters will be tested on their oral advocacy alone. The competition is judged by practising barristers and solicitors.
Competition format
The target size for the competition is 128 mooters. Everyone that signs up will moot in the competition.
The competition will take place over the course of a single day. We will therefore go from having 128 competitors all the way to having a winner in a single day. This will work out as 7 knockout rounds.
Additional features on the day
In previous years, participants have travelled from across the country for the National Speed Mooting Competition (we have even had participants fly over from Ireland to take part). Participants will therefore be looking to gain some value from the competition if they travel from far away and are eliminated in the first round. To add value to the competition, we therefore have additional features on the day of the competition. The mock trial and the Q&A sessions have proved very popular at previous events.
The features that we include are detailed below:
- Q&A session with practitioners. This provides students the opportunity to ask questions to those in practise on anything from advice on training contract/pupillage applications, how to perform in interviews and life in practise as a lawyer.
- Case analysis workshop. Practising barristers will show the students how they analyse the papers in a brief and how they go about preparing for a court hearing.
- Mock trial (with practising barristers as advocates). The barristers will perform the trial which will allow students to see how practising lawyers present submissions in court and handle witnesses. Willing students can participate by acting as the witnesses.
The winner of the competition will receive an iPad Mini and a trophy. There will also be a trophy for the runner up.
Date and Venue
The competition will take place on 22nd February 2020 at BPP Manchester. The competition will run from approximately 9 am until 6 pm.
Entry Fee
The entry fee is £30.00. Lunch will be included and there will be refreshments throughout the day.