Competitions Overview

From Mooting to Witness, Client Interview to Negotiation (not to mention International Humanitarian Law Mooting, Letter of Advice, and Paper and Oral), competitions are intrinsic to the law school experience. They teach you practical skills and get you to speak the law, rather than just write about it. You also get the chance to find out who among your friends really is the next Denny Crane. Most importantly, it is heaps of fun!

As your Competitions Directors for 2012, we will be overseeing the running of competitions in the law school. The competitions portfolio has two main roles. Firstly, we run the internal competitions, where students compete against one another in a friendly tournament, sometimes running across both semesters. The finalists get the opportunity to compete in front of Federal Court justices, or senior partners of major law firms. Secondly, we manage external competitions, which give Melbourne Law Students the opportunity to compete against other universities. These can sometimes be interstate or overseas. There are a diverse mix of external competitions on offer, ranging from International Law to Space Law.

Please send us an email at lss-competitions@unimelb.edu.au if you have any questions, and get involved!

Henry Hedinger and Jonathan Hoe

Rules of Participation

2012 Rules of Participation

Application of the Rules

1. These rules of participation apply to The University of Melbourne Law Students’ Society (LSS) competitions.

2. Participation in any competition signifies agreement by the competitor to abide by the rules set forth in this Guidebook.

General Rules

3. LSS competitions are open only to students undertaking a Bachelor of Laws or a Juris Doctor at the University of Melbourne.

4. Application forms are only valid and effective if they are submitted and received by the relevant coordinators by the time and date specified on the application form. The LSS and its members do not take any responsibility for any failure of application forms to be submitted and received by the due date and time.

a. No exceptions apply. Where applicable, competitors must nominate preferred days to compete.

b. Coordinators will endeavour to allocate competitors their preferred days, however first preferences are not guaranteed.

c. Coordinators will try to ensure that every team that has submitted an application form by the specified time and date is granted entry into the relevant competition, but in the event that the relevant coordinator believes that there are too many teams for a workable competition (e.g. odd number of teams), she or he has total discretion in prohibiting any team from entering a competition. If the coordinator chooses to exercise such discretion, she or he must do so on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

d. Rule 3(c) is also applicable to practice round opportunities.

5. Once the competition has commenced, teams cannot be changed. A change of any team member will result in immediate disqualification. Disqualifications become effective at the time of disqualification and do not operate retrospectively.

6. There is no limit on the number of competitions a person may enter. However, no person can participate in two or more teams for the same competition.

Scheduling and Withdrawals

7. Competition coordinators will endeavour to release the competition schedule and matchups for every round as early as possible, but no later than 48 hours prior to the scheduled commencement of that round.

8. It is the responsibility of each team to notify the coordinator(s) of the competition of the teams unavailability to participate on the scheduled time, as soon as possible but not later than 24 hours before their scheduled competing times.

a. Competition coordinator(s) may elect to reschedule the team if it is viable to do so. The coordinator(s) may reschedule the competition at his or her discretion, but he or she is under no obligation to do so. The coordinator has complete discretion in disqualifying any team for being unable to participate at the allocated time, but before doing so must consider the amount of notice the team gave to the coordinator, the amount of notice the coordinator gave the team for having to compete and the explanation for being unable to participate.

b. If it is not viable to reschedule the team, the team will be deemed as having forfeited.

c. The coordinator’s decision to disqualify a team is final.

9. Failure to give 24 hour notice for withdrawal from any competition, without a reasonable excuse, will result in automatic and immediate disqualification from all competitions for that given year.

Running of Competitions

10. Competition formats:

a. For Mooting, Witness Examination, Negotiations and Client Interview, all rounds will be run as knockout rounds.

b. For the International Humanitarian Law Moot, the competition coordinators may nominate rounds as a non-elimination round if it is reasonable to do so for reasons such as, but not limited to, low number of participating teams.

c. The Paper & Oral Presentation and Letter of Advice Competitions will be run as single round competitions.

11. Each competition is run by the relevant coordinators of each competition. Details of all coordinators can be found on the last page of this Guidebook. Any queries, concerns or the like must be first directed to these coordinators.

12. In the event of a procedural dispute, the decision of the Directors of Competitions is final.

13. No ties will be allowed in any competition.

a. Where there is a tie of scores, the winners will be determined by the combined process of deliberation of the Judges and respective competition coordinators.

b. This decision is final.

14. If an uneven number of teams win in a particular round, a ‘lucky loser’ team may be permitted to compete in the next round. The lucky loser will be the team which has lost by the least percentage in that round, on the basis of the formula (Winning Score – Losing Score) / Winning Score for all competitions bar Negotiation. As the lowest score wins in Negotiation, the appropriate equation is (Losing Score – Winning Score) / Winning Score.

a. Coordinators reserve the discretion to award multiple lucky losers or no lucky losers at all for any particular round.

Breach of Rules and Disciplinary Procedures

15. The Directors of Competitions reserve the right to disqualify any team for breach of any rule set forth in this Guidebook, breach of any statute of the University and/or the Law School, or unacceptable conduct.

a. Unacceptable conduct includes, but is not limited to

i. failing to turn up to a competition;

ii. delaying the progress of the competition;

iii. failing to respect the authority of a judge and breaching the rules of the Legal Resource Centre whilst engaged in preparation (e.g. hiding or defacing library materials).

b. The Directors of Competitions will hear complaints with regards to the above. A decision to act on a complaint is subject to the discretion of the Directors of Competitions.

16. The judge’s decision is final and cannot be overruled. Any complaints regarding the behaviour, bias or decision of a judge must be brought to the attention of the Competitions Directors. Such complaints must be in writing. In the event that the Competitions Directors agree with the substance of the complaint, they may at their total discretion reschedule another round. The Competitions Directors will only do so if they both believe that the judge’s behaviour had a substantial impact on the outcome and will only exercise this discretion in extreme circumstances.

17. All decisions made in relation to the running of the competition by the competition’s coordinators are final.

a. Directors of Competitions reserve the right to review any decision made by the competition coordinators and alter the decision.

18. Where a complaint about a Coordinator arises, a notice of the complaint may be forwarded to the Directors of Competitions. The President, the Directors of Competitions and the Competition Coordinators will discuss the complaint and a decision to act or not act on the complaint is at the discretion of the aforementioned persons.

Mooting

Welcome to LSS Mooting 2012!

Mooting is a traditional law school competition that entails a 'mock' courtroom type scenario. In each round, two teams compete against each other in the context of a mock submission, usually an appeal from an earlier decision, with one team representing the appellant and the other representing the respondent. As such, the facts have already been agreed upon, and the two sides will be debating issues of law. Each team will be required to submit a written submission to the court, as well as make a brief oral submission to the judge.

Teams must consist of a Senior and Junior Counsel, who will each make a 10-minute oral submission to the court – with the judge asking questions – over the applicable points of law (not facts). However, each team may also have an Instructing Solicitor, who assists in the legal research and writing of the written submission, but does NOT speak during the oral submission. The Solicitor is optional and has been introduced to add flexibility to the competition; so that if one teammate cannot make it to a particular mooting round, this will not disqualify the team from the competition. Team members may rotate positions during the course of the competition so that everyone gets a chance to make oral submissions. This is also in line with the ALSA regulations.

The Mooting Competition is an exciting way to get experience in public speaking, but may require a great deal of legal research into obscure and unstudied areas of law. An Information Session will take place during Week 2 for competitors who have not previously mooted. Keep your eyes on the website for more information with regards to the upcoming practice round and formal competition.

If you have any questions, please feel to contact your Mooting Competition Officers Joanna Williams and Jason Perri at lss-mooting@unimelb.edu.au.

As for the procedure of the mooting competition, a small informative guidesheet can be accessed here.

Thank you

Witness Examination

Welcome to Witness Examination 2012!

The Witness Examination competition is a simulated civil or criminal trial. Teams consist of two students, one playing the role of barrister, and  the other of the witness. These are interchangeable positions. As the barrister, you will act as either counsel for the defence or counsel for the prosecution and your task will be to ascertain the facts of the case through the examination and cross-examination of witnesses.

As a witness, you must memorize the facts of the case prior to trial and must testify in accordance with the facts. It is permissible to create facts that are not in the brief, but the facts created must always be consistent with the brief.

You are emailed your brief approximately 24 hours prior to the trial. It contains statements from both the Defendant and Witness for the Prosecution, relevant laws and written instructions from your client.

To avoid forfeights, we will be taking a tough stance on teams that drop out, and will have discretionary power to ban those members from partaking in LSS competitions in the future. If something comes up that absolutely can't be avoided, contact us at least 24 hours prior to your Examination.

We would also like to thank our sponsor, Freehills, for supporting and providing their help in the running of the 2012 Witness Examination Competition.

Teams can sign up at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGs1TTc1M2NEejk0YkhXVmQxUDQ0cHc6MQ

Enquiries

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact your witness examination officers, Marcus Hannah and Stephanie Rowan at lss-witness@unimelb.edu.au

Rules

For information on the rules of Witness Competition, take a look here: Witness Competition guidelines

Scoring

Click here to download scoring sheet (PDF, 296KB).

Client Interview

Welcome to Client Interview 2012!

The Client Interview competition is a great opportunity for law students to develop their listening, client management and team skills.  These skills are tested in a mock environment where your focus is on understanding and communicating with your client. The competition requires minimal preparation and no specific legal knowledge.

Students from all year levels are able to participate. You will work in groups of two, with the setting of the competition being a client visiting two lawyers for a preliminary meeting. With only a very brief memorandum outlining the context of the meeting, you will have a discussion regarding an unknown legal problem. Within the twenty minute time frame, your team must work together to ascertain all the material facts from the client regarding their legal dilemma. 

You will need to separate the legal issues from the rest of the facts and find out whether any relevant documentation is in existence. Such documentation can include reports, contracts, photographs and other bits of evidence. You will also need to work on providing a structured solution for your client which may involve further research or locating of documents before anything can be achieved. Don’t forget to inform your client of your firm’s fee structure before they leave!

On completion of the interview, you will confer with your colleague and make a presentation to the judge about the merits of the case. Remember, that you will not be judged on how much advice you give, but on the quality of your correspondence and teamwork.

The Client Interview competition is an exciting way to develop important legal skills in a mock setting. Plus, there is almost no preparation! If you have any queries, drop the LSS Client Interview Coordinator, Jessica Dawson-Field, a line at lss-clientinterview@unimelb.edu.au.

Sign Up

Please sign up your team using the following form: https://docs.google.com/a/student.unimelb.edu.au/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dExHWFBOa3FjWk1EWG9LSnQ5MW5YeXc6MQ

You will need to log in using your University username and password. Only one application per team please. Sig ups close 5pm on Friday 23rd March.

 Scoring

Click here to download the scoring sheet (PDF, 303KB).

Letter of Advice

Overview and Rules

In the Letter of Advice Competition, you are required to write a letter, with a 1000 word limit (±20%), advising your client on a hypothetical problem. The ability to write letters of advice to clients is one of the most important skills a solicitor possesses. A solicitor will usually produce a letter of advice when a client requests assistance as to their legal position.

The letter should be presented in a letter format and be addressed to the client. It should state the basic facts of the case and the instructions given by the client. It should then proceed to explain the relevant law and apply that law to the given facts. The letter should conclude by making suggestions to the client based on their instructions. For example, if you are asked to give a basic understanding of the law in a particular area, you should give them only a basic understanding and not a full-blown case-by-case examination.

2010 Problem

• Download the 2010 Problem (DOC, 28KB).

Assessment Criteria

• Accurate summary of facts and client’s instructions—20 marks.
• Explanation of the relevant law—25 marks.
• Application of the relevant law—25 marks.
• Suggested resolution based on client’s instructions—30 marks.

Paper & Oral Presentation

Overview

The paper and oral presentation competition aims to promote legal scholarship, oratory skills and the chance to present controversial issues in an interesting and informative manner.  It is a great opportunity for law students to express themselves beyond the traditional formulaic writing required in class.   The competition is run in two stages.

The first stage is the submission of a piece of work (maximum length 5,000 words) that you have undertaken as part of your undergraduate degree. Competitors must submit a piece of research or legal writing with a minimum grading of either first or second grade honours. The actual mark received for the paper is irrelevant, as the mark will not be released to the judges. This minimum grading standard is only used as an elimination benchmark. A panel of academics will judge the paper based on the assessment criteria below.

The second stage of the presentation is the oral component, which consists of a fifteen-minute presentation followed by up to ten minutes of questions from the judges and the audience. The submitted piece of work will obviously form the basis of the presentation. Visual aids are encouraged during the presentation. Any technological requirements must be submitted to the competition coordinator alongside a copy of the written work.   If you have any further questions, please feel to contact your Paper and Oral Presentation Competition Co-ordinator on lss-paper@unimelb.edu.au.

Assessment Criteria

Written Paper (40 Marks)

·        Thought & content (5 Marks)

·        Structure & organization (10 Marks)

·        Research skills (5 Marks)

·        Expression & style (10 Marks)

·        Effectiveness of paper (10 Marks)

Oral Presentation (60 Marks)

·        Organisation (10 Marks)

·        Delivery (15 Marks)

·        Body language (5 Marks)

·        Audience awareness (5 Marks)

·        Presentation effectiveness (15 Marks)

·        Question answering (10 Marks)

ALSA National Competitions

ALSA is proud to facilitate competition by the best of the best; the winners of each law school’s internal competitions. The national finals of legal competitions are held at the annual July Conference. In many competitions, the winners go on to compete at the international finals.

Winners of the 2011 Melbourne LSS Competitions will be competing in the 2012 ALSA Conference to be held in Melbourne!* The national finals of the following competitions are facilitated by ALSA:

• Mooting.
• Witness Examination (One individual competes at the ALSA Witness Examination competition, as it differs to the partner-style competition run by the Melbourne University LSS).
• Negotiation.
• Client Interviewing.
• Paper Presentation (equivalent to Paper & Oral Competition run by Melbourne Uni LSS).
• International Humanitarian Law Moot.
• National Essay Competition.
• Kirby Cup.

* Team members must not have completed a law degree or equivalent qualification for legal practice in any jurisdiction prior to the ALSA Competitions taking place.

Melbourne Law School Art Competition

Fancy yourself a bit of an artist?

Be Awesome. Make Something.

Theme: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

First Prize: $500
People's Choice: $400

Entries close 4 August 2012 

Please see the attached brochure for more details.

Proudly supported by MULSS, CMCL, IPRIA, GLSA and PLSA.

http://www.lawapps.law.unimelb.edu.au/cmcl/
http://www.ipria.org/
http://glsa.law.unimelb.edu.au/
http://plsa.law.unimelb.edu.au/

Download the Brochure