First Round Mooting Post Mortem

Here as promised is a description of the moot yesterday. Unfortunately the other side had to withdraw, so we only gave our side of the argument. We still had to perform because it is point based in the first round.

My partner took the first point of appeal which was on the closeness of relationship needed to found liability for witnesses of incidents to claim for psychiatric damages.

He was picked up on one or two points but nothing major so all good, although he did keep on saying "I believe" which is wrong, and made me wince every time it happened.

My point concerned the whether employers are liable for psych. harm alone, and the requirements for proving the maxim "Volenti non fit injuria". My cases were (in case anyone is interested) Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and Smith v Baker.

I was told that my eye contact was excellent and that I obviously knew the cases and law very well so that I did not need to look at my notes. The judges said that my pace and cadence were perfect, and that my answering of the questions was first rate, as was my court room etiquette.

Two small points were picked up:
1-In my eagerness to begin I did not leave as much time as I should to allow the judges to finish thinking about my leader's points and give their full attention to me;
2-I got a page number wrong in my notes, although that was a typo. However when challenged about this I was not as courteous as I could have been, but later did apologise to the court.

All in all a successful moot, in which I felt very calm and in control of my points and speaking. I am quietly optimistic that we have made it through, especially as the judges started discussing bundles and skeletons with us. The results are out Friday.

My Apologies

I am afraid that due to the amount of work that I put into preparing for the moot, I completely neglected my EC law seminar work so I have spent about 6 hours this evening trying to do it. I will therefore endeavour to post the details of today's very successful moot tomorrow.

Round one ding ding!!

Have just finished typing out my submissions in long hand for tomorrows moot. Just need to condense everything down to bullet points on file cards now. It may seem as though I have left this a bit late, but we were only given the moot problem this Wednesday and have had seminars to prepare in between.

The problem is a tort question concerning employers liability and psychiatric harm. As I led last year I am giving my partner an opportunity to have a go. I have put in a lot of prep and with my extra public speaking experience, and real life advocacy, I am feeling fairly confident about it all.

I shall let you know how it went tomorrow, all the best till then,
BoB

Today deputy chair, tomorrow PM.

Last night I attended the first meeting of the union council. I know that as soon as you mention student politics to some people they immediately switch off, and have visions of far left wannabe politicians playing little power games.

However, this is another opportunity to get some public speaking experience and start thinking about the way you construct a coherent and compelling argument. As you all know this is obviously excellent experience, as well as giving you a chance to make a real difference to the students at your uni.

I was on council last year, but this year I decided that I wanted to become more involved, and stood in the election for deputy chair. This meant giving a speech on why I would be so good for the job etc. etc. I am pleased to say that I won and will be in charge of any council meetings that the chair cannot make.

To top the evening off, a motion that I made a supporting speech for also passed, so a successful evening all round. I must dash, contract law seminar prep awaits.

A plea on behalf of other students.

If any of you that read this blog (I now that there are only a few) are involved in the running of the mooting then please make it more interesting than the introductory event for this years competition that my law society runs.

I have fortunately mooted before, but if I had not then this would have completely put me off (well not really as I know how important it is so would have done it anyway). The format was basically handing out a four page guide to mooting, and the reading out loud the guide with the readers own comments on each section. I think the reaction at the end of the talk (absolute silence, not a clap in the house), was a pretty good indication of how well it was received. Having said that it is so important that everybody signed up anyway.

So please, for the sake of all students sanity, make sure the presentations are lively.

P.S This year my team mate and I will be victorious! I hope lol

Am I a Traitor??

I have just this very minute finished and sent off an online application. This has taken me a considerable amount of time. But why would this be traitorous?

Because fellow Bar aspirants, it is for the summer vacation scheme at Linklaters! Now yes it would be very good work experience, and it is fairly nicely re numerated, but am I betraying my quest?

I shall leave it for you to decide, although let us not forget that this scheme is exceptionally competitive so no guarantees I'll even get on it, so the worrying could all be for naught.

Till next time, BoB.

Am I a bit peculiar?

This is only a very short post readers, but I think an important one. I arrived at the library on campus today at 09:30. I left for half and hour at lunch to have a coffee and meet my significant other, and had an hour lecture on EC law at 16:00. I did not return home until 19:15. Other than these times I was in the library. And what was I doing in the Library...?

Reading, studying, absolutely loving, and not noticing the time slip away, while immersed in the subject of Trust Law. Now surely this isn't normal behaviour for a law student. Which is why I put the question as the title.

I found my self becoming enthralled with the rights of trustee and beneficiary, the obligations and powers of the trustee, whether there was a fiduciary duty, how trusts are created in wills, and such forth. It hasn't all quite sunk in yet but with more study, I am sure it will. I feel as though it will be the same story as land law last year, gently swimming against the tide of public opinion on my course and being given funny glances when I declare my enjoyment of the subject.

Well to conclude on what has actually become quite a long post, I say this. I care not whether I am thought of as peculiar or not, surely a love for the subject is what drives us to be barristers. What other job are you able to study and apply a subject that utterly fascinates you. Must go, the three certainties await.