Inns of Court National Moot 2019

On 13th February, the Southampton University Inns of Court committee hosted a national moot competition which saw a variety of both undergraduate and postgraduate teams competing across the day in order to win the title. The moot problem was written by the competition organiser, Devonté Smith, and concerned the interesting and topical issue of vicarious liability. All teams prepared both sides of the argument and had to moot for both the appellant and respondent throughout the day. Hear from the organiser below on how the day went.

We were very fortunate to have four legal professionals attend the competition to act as judges for the day; barristers Oggy Miletic (Henderson Chambers) and Callum Beamish (Powell Gilbert LLP), alongside solicitors Emma Stevens and Bryan Scant (Coffin Mew). All judges posed challenging and interesting questions to the competitors to test their understanding of the law and their ability to disseminate the facts of the given case.
Following the first two rounds, the semi-final saw both University of Law teams face each other, whilst Inner Temple and Grays Inn mooted against each other in the other semi-final.

For the grand final many members of Southampton University, including our very own Head of the Law School, Brenda Hannigan, came along to watch some exceptional mooting, as the Inner Team faced the University of Law (1) team. After a very close fought battle, the judges awarded the win to the University of Law, but both teams did exceptionally well, especially considering how many moots they had to complete throughout the day!

After the final, the Inns committee hosted a reception where judges, members of staff, Southampton students and competitors were able to enjoy some well-earned food and drink, whilst discussing the events of the day. This was also a nice opportunity for competitors to receive feedback from the judges about how they could improve their mooting skills for future events.

Overall, the day was a huge success and we are very thankful for the efforts put in by all of the competitors and judges. A special thank you must be extended to the President and Vice President of the Inns of Court Society, Holly Southey and Laura Palmer, without whom the competition would not have been possible. Thanks to their hard work, alongside the support of Southampton Law School, the 8th Annual Inns mooting competition proved to be a huge success and hopefully we will continue to host many more successful moots in the future.