2nd Annual Insurance Law Moot
The Insurance Law Moot, now in its second year, ran over the weekend on 6-7 March. Eight teams had signed up and the competition enjoyed some fantastic industry support and sponsorship.
The winners were Middle Temple, who were victorious over University of Law in the Grand Final, which took place in the Supreme Court with Sir Richard Aikens presiding. The other two judges were Peter MacDonald Eggers QC and Jane Andrewartha, who also judged last year's final and whose firms 7 King's Bench Walk Chambers and Clyde & Co LLP were major contributors to the event, generously giving up their premises to the general rounds and the semifinals. 7KBW also offered, for the second time, a short internship to the best speaker in the final, Matthew Withers of the University of Law.
Informa, the insurance and commercial law publisher provided book vouchers to all finalists. The British Insurance Law Association awarded a year's free membership to the finalists and to the Southampton team who won the Spirit of the Moot award.
The Southampton team, consisting of LLB student Adrian Wright and LLM students Varsha Ramann and Tianyi Li, reached the semi-finals, where they lost to the ultimate winners Middle Temple. Varsha said afterwards:
"If only we had qualified to the finals, we would have had the chance to not only argue before Lord Justice Aikens, but to do so in the Supreme Court of the UK.
It is quite rare that you meet the judge whose judgments and articles have made you high on law, rarer still that this meeting should happen in such an informal and educative setting!
Thank you to my tutors for having confidence in me and pushing me to do the Insurance Law Moot - I've learnt so much in the past one week!"
We wish to thank the several judges in the general rounds and semifinals of the moot, who gave up their time, namely Neil Hext QC, Oliver Caplin, Alison Padfield, Professor James Davey, Emma Park, Edward Cole, Sarah Pearson, Stephen Du, James Brocklebank and Jack Steer.
The Moot could not have been organised without the help of the many LLM and PhD students who helped organising the general rounds and last but by no means least Moot Director Mateusz Bek without whom the event would not have been a success.
The Moot is organised by the University of Southampton as an opportunity for law students and aspiring practitioners to encounter insurance law in an exciting and engaging context. Insurance law is a very important field of practice but studied only at a very few UK universities. The University of Southampton offers a third year optional module, two LLM modules and a postgraduate degree, as well as opportunities for postgraduate research.