Students from Brighton Business School have taken part in mooting competitions at the prestigious Supreme Court in London and Lewes Combined Court.
Mooting competitions offer law students the opportunity to practise their oral and written skills. Students argue both sides of a fictitious legal case in a courtroom setting, before of a panel of real judges.
Supreme Court moot
On 21 March, students from the Postgraduate Diploma in Law/Common Professional Examination (CPE) argued a fictitious legal case in a Supreme Court courtroom.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom hears appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance. It is the highest appellate court for civil and criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and for civil cases in Scotland.
Sarah Field, Course Leader, was awarded a Springboard grant to fund the trip. The Springboard Grants Programme provides awards to current students and staff at the University to help fund unique activities that enrich and enhance the student and staff experience.
Sarah said, "The moot was an unqualified success. Both judges commented on how impressed they were by the high standard of advocacy demonstrated by all the mooters and on what a pleasure and honour it was to participate in a moot at such an auspicious and prestigious venue. Everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable day. A wonderful experience for all which we hope to make into an annual event."
Sarah's comments were echoed by Jennifer Cove, Diploma in Law/CPE student. "As an American, being able to tour the Supreme Court in London was very exciting in and of itself, but actually being able to engage actively in the law in those surroundings was an experience I never imagined I would have.
"The privilege of mooting at the Supreme Court, beyond the thrill of simply being in the building, was valuable in many ways, but especially good practice at overcoming nerves. The very positive nature of the experience as a whole has strengthened my resolve to continue in the law and given me a greater sense of confidence that I will carry forward throughout my studies and into professional settings as well.
"I'm very grateful to Sarah Field for making such a tremendous chance available to us and would definitely urge other students to take advantage of similar opportunities in the future."
The moot was attended by 28 CPE students and was judged by His Honour Judge (HHJ) Anthony Niblett and HHJ Janet Waddicor.
Lewes County Court moot
The University of Brighton was invited to take part in a moot at Lewes County Court on 17 March. The moot was sponsored by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who offered the winning team a week's work experience. Three universities took part in the moot: Sussex, Kent and Brighton.
Brighton Business School was represented by Emma Vankova and Antanas Angelov, both Law with Business LLB students who were selected following an internal mooting competition.
As Emma and Antanas are first years, they were allocated two final-year students to mentor them through the process of researching and preparing. These mentoring students were Alex Thompson and Jon Day.
The moot was judged by four CPS advocates: Roger Coe-Salazar, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South East; Tim Thompson, Senior District Crown Prosecutor (Central District); Alex Wilson Crown Advocate; and Martin Yale, Crown Advocate.
The moot was organised by Zoe Swan, Mistress of the Moots. Zoe said, "The moot has been a fantastic developmental experience for our students. They did exceptionally well in their first year at university to research an area of law they had not been taught in order to prepare responses to the appeal grounds. An excellent achievement and I was so impressed by their willingness to take on this challenge!"
Emma Vankova commented "The moot in the Crown Court was a great experience. It was an opportunity to get a better understanding of the life of a barrister, how do you feel when you are in court and what to expect from the judges. I recommend to everyone to take part in as many moots as possible because you gain important skills such as researching, public speaking and team work, which are highly important if you want to become a barrister."
Antanas Angelov added: "I personally found this experience extremely helpful because I was told which skills I need to develop in order to be able to pursue the competitive career of a barrister.
"Watching the teams from Sussex and Kent Universities was very inspiring and motivating and showed me the level of performance I must aim to from now on. Everyone in the court room with whom I had the opportunity to talk told me that the research and legal knowledge are only one half of what is necessary in a real trial. The other half include the orator skills, self confidence, the ability to be persuasive and to think and communicate under pressure and they only come with experience.
"This experience showed me in advance what to expect from a potential career as a barrister and what skills I will be required to possess. Despite its challenging character, this profession is very appealing to me and the experience that I obtained during the moot was crucial for my future realisation as a barrister."
