The Competitive Moot Program at the Faculty of Law allows interested students to participate in a variety of mooting competitions under the supervision of Faculty members and practitioners. This year nearly 60 students participated in the Jim Brimacombe Selection Round, a competitive moot to select teams for the appellate advocacy moots (Jessup, Laskin, Gale, Canadian Corporate/Securities Law, Alberta Court of Appeal and the Clinton Ford).
Close to 50 students were selected to participate in 14 moot competitions which were held across Canada and the United States, including:
Alberta Court of Appeal Moot, an appellate level moot competition between the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. It consists of three moots in the areas of criminal law, civil law (contract, property, or tort law), and constitutional law. On March 12 Matthew Grenier and Benjamin Taylor (Civil Law), Mark Zion and Trent Falldien (Constitutional Law), and David Wolsey and Shayne Abrams (Criminal Law) travelled to Calgary to compete in the moot competition.
"Despite our best efforts, Calgary won the overall competition," said constitutional coach Professor Eric Adams, "although Mark and Trent should be congratulated for their victory in the Constitutional Law Moot."
American Bar Association Client Counselling Competition simulates a law office consultation in which law students, acting as attorneys, are presented with a client matter. They conduct an interview with a person playing the role of the client and then explain how they would proceed further in the hypothetical situation.
This year, the competition topic was Professional Responsibility of Lawyers and Judges and the regional competition was held in Edmonton in February. Twelve teams from law schools in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alberta took part in the competition, including Kirsten Burrows, Tara Szott, James Taylor and Erin Crocker (with coach Lynn Parish) from the University of Alberta. The team of James and Erin advanced to the semi-final round; however, the competition was won by a team from Lewis and Clark School of Law in Portland, Oregon.
The Bennett Jones Health Law Moot, which is generously sponsored by Bennett Jones LLP, is competition between the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. The inaugural moot was held in Edmonton on March 19 and was judged by a panel of three judges - Madam Justice Ellen Picard, Madam Justice Darlene Acton, and John Martland, Q.C.
Our moot teams of Alison Mazoff, Kathryn Samaras, Trevor Gouletand Mike McVey dealt with a moot problem that involved the topic of informed consent to medical treatment, and was based on the case of Martin v. Findlay, a decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal from 2008.
"Although the competition was won by a team from Calgary, all four mooters from the University of Alberta did exceptionally well," noted coach Professor Gerald Robertson, "and Trevor Goulet was awarded the prize for the top oralist."
The Canadian Corporate / Securities Law Moot Court Competition is an annual competition that focuses on corporate and securities law in Canada and is designed to provide law students with an opportunity to meet and network with various members of the legal community in those areas.
Corporate counsel, securities regulators, legal academics, practitioners, and judges from various court levels (including the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada) act as moot judges and advisors thereby fostering debate on legal issues of current importance to the Canadian business community.
This year 11 law schools, including our team of Taylor Little, Megan Mickalyk, Ciara Toole, Jacques DuPlessis and Mark Fernandes, travelled to Toronto to partake in this year's moot on March 4 and 5. The moot problem focused on the issue of shareholder voting and proxy solicitation
"Our team performed exceptionally well," said coach Dr. Barry Slutsky. "Each pair of students had to moot on behalf of both appellant and the respondent within a 24-hour period-a real challenge which they handled successfully."
Congratulations to Taylor Little who was named second top oralist in the competition!
The Clinton J. Ford Moot competition is an appellate level moot with a problem on either a criminal or constitutional law topic.
In February, four of our third-year students competed in the Clinton J. Ford Moot before a near-capacity audience in the Eldon Foote Moot Courtroom. A distinguished panel, comprising of Slatter J.A., Burrows J., and Rosborough P.C.J., selected Appellant's counsel Terrance Myers and Caeleigh Shier by a narrow margin over Respondent's counsel Benjamin Hall and Isabella Szkop. Coach Steven Penney noted that, "the mooters all performed admirably."
Donald G. Bowman National Tax Moot is Canada's first competitive moot on taxation.Named after the former chief justice of the Tax Court of Canada, Donald G. Bowman, the moot gives law students a chance to take part in a simulated tax court proceeding.
"The Faculty of Law is extremely fortunate and grateful to have had Mark Woltersdorf and his colleagues at the Edmonton office of Fraser Milner Casgrain provide both funding and expertise in respect of the moot," said coach Professor Chris Sprysak. "Without their generous support, the University would not have been able to participate."
Our moot team of Rob Joseph, Kristen Mercier, Nathan Rob, Gianfranco Matrangolo, and Sterling Lawrence travelled to Toronto to compete in the inaugural moot, which took place March 11-12 and was hosted by Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP.
The Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP Negotiation Competition promotes greater interest in legal negotiation, and provides a means for students to practice and improve their negotiation skills. In teams of two, students compete to obtain the best possible results for their client through negotiation with the other team, the best possible result for their "client", as judged by competition judges. The judging criteria include not only the outcome achieved, but also a team's planning, flexibility, teamwork, ability to deal with ethical issues, and a self-analysis of the team's performance conducted at the end of the negotiation, outside of the presence of the opposing team.
In November 2010, Lamont Bartlett and Steven Dollansky travelled to Oregon to compete in the negotiation competition.
The Gale Cup, one of Canada's oldest moot competitions, takes place every February in Toronto at Osgoode Hall with judging panels made up of presiding judges drawn from various locations across in Canada. The rules for the preparation and exchange of facts and the procedures for the hearing of oral argument are based upon Canadian appellate practice.
Normally, the problem to be mooted is drawn from a case recently decided in the Supreme Court of Canada, preferably a decision with one or more dissenting judgments and one or more reversals in lower courts. The case is chosen with a view to providing significant legal issues with strong arguments to be made on both sides. In effect, students are appealing a Supreme Court decision to a "higher" court - the moot court of the Gale Cup Competition.
This year's moot tackled the complex R. v. Morelli case, which dealt with criminal possession of digital property. The issue was child pornography and teams had to present their views on the validity of a search warrant that was obtained on a problematic Information to Obtain a Search Warrant.
Professor Matthew Lewans, who coached this year's team of Jessica Duhn, Alexander Fay, Nicole Patterson and John Schmidt noted that, "our students performed extremely well in the competition. Although our team did not proceed to the final round of the competition, I can report that theydeserved consideration for that honour on the basis of their oral presentations."
The Faculty's participation is made possible in large part due to an annual gift from the Edmonton firm of Beresh Cunningham.
Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot is intended to promote the furtherance of legal education in the intellectual property field and is named in honour of the late Harold G. Fox, one of Canada's leading intellectual property scholars and advocates.
In February our team members Matthew Mazurek, Jordan Crone, Ken Jiang and Trevor Kelly, along with Professor Cameron Hutchinson travelled to Ontario for the competition held at the Federal Court in Toronto. This year the judging panel included The Right Honourable Lord Justice Jacob, Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales; Justices Carolyn Layden-Stevenson, J. Edgar Sexton and David Stratas of the Federal Court of Appeal and; Justice Allan Lutfy, Chief Justice of the Federal Court.
The Kawaskimhon National Aboriginal Moot is an annual event that brings together close to 100 students, professors and community leaders from across Canada and is the only national law school moot that focuses on legal issues that have a significant impact on Aboriginal peoples.
Our moot team of Susan Rawlings, Jody Peterson and coach Andrea Menard travelled to Vancouver on March 5 to compete. Over the course of the two days, students from 14 schools across the country presented oral arguments based on written submitted materials, and then collectively worked toward a set of recommendations. The topic for the 2011 Kawaskimhon Moot was the issue of murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Canada. This topic was selected to bring together academics, advocates and community members to implement a practical project for students that will have lasting results for Aboriginal communities.
The Laskin Memorial Moot is Canada's only national, bilingual moot and was established in honour of the memory of Chief Justice Bora Laskin of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Laskin Memorial Moot is a bilingual moot which is hosted by different law schools in Canada every year and the topics are usually based in constitutional or administrative law.
This year's team, including Andrew Guerra, Brett Grierson, Matthew Turzansky, Amy Cheuk as well as coaches Patricia Paradis and Karine DeChamplain, travelled to Ottawa in February to compete.
"Although our group did not proceed to the final round of the competition," said Patricia Paradis, "they were one of the top 10 schools in Canada for their factums."
The Mathews, Dinsdale and Clark LLP Canadian Labour Arbitration Competition takes place between eight two-person teams from law schools across Canada. This year, Imane Semaine and Brittany Tetz (along with coaches John Carpenter and David Williams) travelled to Toronto to appear at the premises of the Ontario Labour Relations Board to moot before three person panels made up of seasoned arbitrators and labour lawyers.
Our participation in this competition is made possible by a donation from Chivers Carpenter.
The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is one of the most prestigious moot competitions in the world. Created in the United States in 1959 by the International Law Students Association ("ILSA"), it is the world's largest moot competition, typically involving more than 1500 students from more than 300 law schools in almost 50 nations on six continents.
The Canadian National Division Qualifying Tournament-the first stage of the moot-took place March 2 to 5 and our team of Daniel Shouldice, Ian Elford, Greg Plester, Christopher Yang travelled to Calgary to compete.
"This year's group deserves our congratulations for undertaking this onerous moot and for performing very well indeed at the competition," said coach Professor Cameron Hutchison.
The Western Canada Trial Moot is a criminal trial moot and involves the analysis of a criminal case, and presentation of the case to a jury. The moot is designed to prepare students for a jury trial, working with live witnesses, and a real-life fact situation.
This year all six western law schools, including June Ling, Alexandra Seaman and Diane Ridley from the University of Alberta, participated in the moot, which was held in February in Edmonton.
The Faculty of Law would like to thank all of the judges, lawyers and faculty members who gave generously of their time in helping to prepare the mooters for their various competitions.
We would also like to recognize the generous financial support of a number of law firms: Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, Bennett Jones LLP, Beresh Cunningham, and Chivers Carpenter. Their valued support allows our students to participate in competitive moots locally, regionally and nationally.
By participating in the moot court program, students have an exciting hands-on opportunity to develop their lawyering skills, while being coached and evaluated by skilled professors and practitioners.
The Faculty of Law invites other firms to support some of our moot competitions. If you are interested in supporting our competitive moot court program, please contact the Vice-Dean, John Law at (780) 492-2151 or email.