Mooting
What is a Moot?
A moot is a contest in which opposing pairs of counsel argue a fictitious legal appeal case in front of a 'judge' (normally a lecturer or postgraduate student). To win you do not necessarily have to win the legal case, but must make the best presentation of your legal arguments.
Why should I get involved?
Taking part in mooting is one of the more effective ways of acquiring the skills of a lawyer. It is useful for developing legal skills of analysis and interpretation, but also personal skills of argument and public speaking. Most importantly of all, it's great fun! Mooting is an essential activity for those considering a career at the Bar and desirable even for those looking to law firms.
What is mooting like at City?
Mooting is an important part of studying law at City, with City students seeing significant success in both national and international competitions. The School recognises the value in students taking part in mooting competitions to enable them to develop their analytical, advocacy and communications skills. Mooting is a compulsory part of the undergraduate law course, and students from our postgraduate courses are encouraged to get involved.
We run several internal moot competitions for our students:
- City Scholars Moot for LLB, GELLB and LLM students (read about the 2014-15 final via the Lawbore blog)
- GDL Moot for GDL students
- Crown Office Moot for all students on academic programmes
- Senior Moot for all postgraduate students (read about the 2014-15 final via the Lawbore blog)
Additionally. there are various opportunities to attend lectures and workshops to help students improve their mooting skills.
Recent successes in moot competitions
We have seen some tremendous performances from our students in recent years; here are a few highlights:
Margherita Cornaglia, Ben Lewy, Miguel Rodriguez-Correa Henderson, and Douglas Grant won the 2017 European Law Moot Court Competition at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (March 2017)- Matt Henderson and Emma Rigarlsford triumph at the University of Hertfordshire/Blackstones’s National Criminal Advocacy Competition (July 2015)
- Charlotte Bellamy and Raphael Gray win the final of the OUP/BPP National Mooting Competition (June 2015). Get Charlotte’s insight into the competition via the blog.
- Jodie Drummond and Michael Levenstein win the final of the National Inter-BPTC Mooting Competition (February 2015) with Jodie also winning the
- Mathias Cheung, Douglas James and Emma Park named Best Team at the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Arbitration Weekend (January 2015)
- Ali Nihat, Howard Leithead and Niall Coghlan (along with Anna Dannreuther from the University of Law) win the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Strasbourg, beating teams from around the world (March 2014). Hear from Niall about their experience.
- Matthew Sellwood and Daniele Selmi won the Commonwealth Student Moot in South Africa (April 2013)
Want to know more?
Learnmore, part of our Lawbore portal, is an excellent place to learn about Mooting and to find resources to help you learn the skills needed for this. You'll discover video clips of mooting in action, hear tips and experiences from our expert mooters on everything from skeleton arguments to bundles, judicial interventions to modes of address.
The Lawbore Mooting HQ gives you more information about the competitions we get involved in.
Emily Allbon is Moot Director with responsibility for the National Mooting Competitions as well as the internal City Scholars, GDL and Crown Office Moots.
Joanne Moss is Moot Director with responsibility for the Senior Moot.