Mooting Tips

Having read Lost's post (if you have not then please follow the link on the right hand side), I thought that I would take up the offer and collaborate on this most worthy of projects. As a quick disclaimer I do not profess to being an expert, nor are these points to be considered sacred cows, they are purely my opinion and as such are open to discussion, debate, and dare I say it disagreement.

Bundles:
I agree with most of what Lost has said, although I don't bother with a contents page. I think this is because I use a slightly different system with my tabs. When I refer to tabs I mean those neon coloured thin little plastic post it ones that you use for revision.

• Tabs - Tabs should not just be used to mark the beginning of a new case. Tabs are fantastic ways of speeding up the moot because with tabs you can direct the Judge straight to the page with the quote you are relying on. This saves the old lovely from having to fumble through umpteen pages, wasting your valuable time. Much easier to just say "Can I direct your lordship to page xyz, which can be found at pink tab number 2". Another tip is to use different colour tabs for you and your partner to add to the ease of use and avoid confusion.
• Highlighting - As always this may be subject to the rules, but I have always found that highlighting the passage which you intend to refer to has found favour with the Judges I have mooted before.

Speeches and speaking: This is (for obvious reasons) the most important part of the moot and will provide the bulk of the advice in this post.

• Pre-written - I know that many people like to have all their speech written out and then learn it and distill it, and reduce it to little cards or bullet points on A4. I implore you that if you can avoid doing this then do so. No matter how much you practice and re-read it you will never memorise it and you should not try to do so. You will sound just as wooden and may forget where you are. True spontaneity and natural mooting is achieved by reading the cases, formulating your points, thinking about any possible questions the Judge might ask, and going for it when you get on your feet. I have at the most the quotes I am relying upon plus the full citation. That is all! From a tactical point of view this makes life so much easier.
• The language you use - Do not use slang (unless it is in the facts of a case or a judgment), abbreviations, or colloquialisms. Do not say TV say television. Do not say kids say children. The moot is a formal affair, and vulgarity does not go down well unless you can be humorous. In a previous moot I had to describe a case in which a man was caught receiving a blow job off of his girlfriend. Instead of saying that I used the word fellatio. Same thing just sounds more professional. However,
• Don't use long words for the sake of it - You do not have much time so verbosity and verbal flannelage will not impress, it will only waste time and possibly obscure the point of your argument.

If you are the appellant:

• Try and figure out what points your opponent will make and address them in your speech. This is another reason why you should not use a fully written speech. If you can make your point and give some good reasons why your opponent is wrong, you give the Judge some difficult questions to ask the other side before they have even opened their mouths.
• Listen to the other side when they are making their submissions and write down answers to any points they make which need to be addressed in the rebuttal.
• The rebuttal - This is by far and away my favourite part of the moot. The last voice that the the Judge will hear is yours so make it count. You have to be forceful and compelling. Address the points methodically and explain why they are clearly wrong. Use all of the knowledge you have including that of precedent. You will be surprised the number of times that teams will cite dissenting judgments and decisions of lower courts. These can all be used to your benefit. For the lead counsel who gives the rebuttal - Know your partners grounds of appeal nearly as well as yours.

Respondents:

• Have an idea of what you want to say in support of your points, but most of your speech should be based on what the appellants have said in the preceding 20 or so minutes. This is yet again another reason not to have a written speech (sorry to bang on about it but it is just so important). You are the respondents so your job is to respond to their actual arguments, something you cannot do until you have actually heard them. You can think of some really novel ideas during this time which make excellent points.

General points:

• Pretend you are actually in court presenting a real case. Refer to the decision of the lower court and if in a criminal moot a good out when a judge asks you why the particular indictment was chosen say "I am afraid I was not involved in the CPS decision when the case was heard at first instance. I have only been involved in the case from the start of the appeal proceedings". It shows that you know a bit about the legal system and that you are taking it seriously. Well that or it's a good display of BS.
• Be inventive - After you have looked at the question and the immediately involved cases try to think laterally about the question. Just because it is a criminal case does not mean that you can't look to civil cases for sources of principle to put before the court. I personally like to be on the side where the law is clearly against you as it forces you to be really inventive.
• Dress - The clothes maketh the man or so it is said. Look like a barrister and you immediately show you mean business. Do not slouch! Stand up tall (I have to do this as I am only 5ft 4"), speak loudly, and try to project an air of confidence even of your are bricking it. Shoes should be black, lace ups for men, leather, and polished to a high sheen. Trousers should be pressed, as should the shirt which from personal preference should be white. Choose a sombre tie and if you do not know how to already learn to tie a Windsor or half Windsor knot. If you have long hair make sure it is tied back so you do not fiddle with it. Do not wear any jewellery that may rattle and cause a distraction.

Well, I think that is enough for the moment. This is the longest post I have written for a long time. Hope that it is useful and enjoyable,

BoB

Another win!

Just the quickest of quick posts to let you know that we won the moot last Wednesday (I scored 18 out of 20), and we are now through to the quarter final of the ESU comp. It's either QMUL or KCL next.

2nd round of ESU Mooting Competition

Last Thursday saw BoB, his mooting partner, the Mistress of the Moots, and a friend who wanted to come along and support us, climb into a rather nice hire car (paid for by the law school) and set off to the hallowed learning establishment that is Oxford University.

Now I am a fairly confident guy and feel that I am a fairly accomplished mooter but I must admit that the thought of going to Oxford to face the two best undergraduate mooters at the university did make me feel a little anxious. Especially seeing as the preparation had been less than I would have liked due to other more pressing problems such as keeping on top of my work for the third year (where has the time gone?).

We arrived at Magdalen College after a very pleasant drive through the snowy Oxfordshire countryside and after parking the car fled to the nearest coffee house to finish preparing our bundles (I told you that the prep was a little lacking). Come five o'clock we changed into our best attire and made our way to the mock court (lovely oak panelled room in the college). The other team were already there and after a brief exchange of pleasantries and bundles we sat and waited for the Judge to arrive.

Now as you may recall from my last post (apologies for the lack of posting) I have recently revised my mooting style and now only use the briefest of notes and the selected quotations I require. In fact on my last ground of appeal I had written next to no notes at all and was, for want of a better word, winging it. As it turned out if I had written very detailed notes it would have been an absolute disaster. The Judge was very tough and the entire experience was more like a cross between the Spanish inquisition and a one on one seminar with the strictest tutor imaginable. This is not to say that it wasn't enjoyable because it was actually great fun with even a sharing of jokes over the facts of one of the cases involved (a man caught on CCTV receiving fellatio from his girlfriend).

As we were the respondents in this case we had to listen to the Oxford team go first who both sounded very professional, calm, and collected. I must admit that when it came to the Judge giving the verdict I was not sure which way it would go. He gave a very long judgment on the law (which we lost on both points) and then finally gave the result 49%...to the appellants and 51% to the respondents. We had beaten the best that Oxford had to offer. We were obviously thrilled and to top the evening off the Oxford team took us out for an all expenses paid dinner afterwards. We are now looking forward to the third round, although the question is on trusts which is a subject I hoped to never have to deal with again.

All the best and hope everyone is well

BoB

National Mooting Victory

Last night was the first round of the national mooting competition that my partner and I have entered.  We were the host institution so come 6 o'clock I was sat in the mock courtroom at the law school waiting for the moot to begin.

As lead counsel for the appellants I was the first to speak and after the brief spell of nerves that I experience at the beginning of every moot I got into the groove and put in a fine performance netting the joint highest score for all of the contestants that evening.  My partner also put in a stellar performance and I am very happy to say that we won.  We are now through to the next round so yet more work on top of that which I already have for my degree.

I am also doing a talk for the charity I do the court advocacy for at my law schools pro bono evening tonight, after which I am retiring to a local public house which was voted CAMRA's best pub in Britain a couple of years ago so plenty of good quality real ale to sup.  

All the best

BoB 

Christmas Drinks and Mooting Comp

The season of Christmas cheer is now upon us and for many people this means it's time to drink your own weight in your preferred tipple before passing out in front of the Queen's Speech. With this most British of past times in mind I was wondering if anyone from the blawging community was up for a little Christmas drink in London.

I am back for a meeting on the afternoon of Saturday the 13th so am available all morning if anyone fancies a beverage or two or that evening. Please let me know at the brand spanking new e-mail address which is on the right of the blog and we can try arrange something which is convenient for all.

Secondly I am eyeball deep in moot preparation at the moment for a national mooting competition. The problem is really interesting and I am looking forward to being on my feet again and hopefully progressing through to the next round.

All the best, will post again soon,

BoB

Two for Two

As a boy I regularly enjoyed going out at the weekend with friends, armed with only a tub of maggots and a rod, and spending the day casting out into the river and seeing what I could catch. It is crucial that you use the right bait to reel in that big fish which you are after.

Thus I come to the point of this post, and stretching the fishing metaphor to almost breaking point, I am pleased to say that I have secured two mini-pupillages for next year, one which is listed in band three of Chambers and Partners UK for crime in London, and one which is listed in band one. Although I have done quite a few minis I am now concentrating on doing criminal law minis to prove my commitment (although maybe being poor and impoverished would show my commitment better?). It is also so that I can meet the members of chambers I am intending to apply to, and more importantly they can meet me.

Perhaps the most satisfying part of this process has been that I only sent out two CV's and both came back with an offer, so I obviously 'used the right bait'.

All the best
BoB

The Barristers

To start this post I quickly want to mention what an absolute God send the BBC i-player service is.  This alone is worth the licence fee that most of the press having been bleating about following the Brand/Ross scandal.  The availability of this wondrous piece of technology allowed me to attend a poker evening last night, and watch the program this afternoon.

Right down to business.  I agree with barboy that there could have been a bigger concentration of the difficulties and bad parts of training to be a barrister.  It was, however, a fairly entertaining and informative program for those who know nothing about the bar.  For those of us who are already aspiring to be barristers and have half an ounce of sense (although this may possibly be an oxymoron), it didn't really proffer much in the way of new information.

I thought that the BVC students that they chose to follow were a little uninteresting and may have been chosen to give the impression of the Bar being a much more 'right on' and diverse profession than most people would traditionally think.  I was particularly unimpressed by the single male that was chosen, especially when he stated 'I mooted once at University, but think that it is better to do it here in front of real judges'.  If he had mooted more at University he might not have been so bad and lost on the night.

I think that it would be interesting if the next episode is mainly about pupillage to give a real insight into what to expect, with maybe a bit of a side focus on the very junior end of the profession.  We shall see soon enough.

All the best BoB