U of A Faculty of Law claims another banner year in mooting

Students at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law shone bright during this year’s competitive moot season, bringing home top prizes and accolades from regional, provincial and national moots.

"Once again, the University of Alberta has had another fantastic year of mooting,” says Chris Samuel, director of the Legal Research and Writing Program. “In my experience, students uniformly report that upper-year mooting is a challenging but immensely rewarding exercise. I'm rightfully proud of the accolades and success that our school has accumulated this year. That said, even for those teams who may not have taken home a physical award or trophy, know that the skills and experiences you've gained from mooting will last you for the rest of your career."

"Your coaches and I are incredibly proud of the hard work that you've put into this process," says Samuel. "Speaking of those coaches, I wanted to thank our dedicated roster of moot coaches who have spent countless hours editing factums, putting together practice panels and providing detailed oral feedback to our students. The program would not be possible without your tireless effort and support."

Top Prizes

The Faculty of Law moot teams secured numerous top finishes this season. From February 9 - 10, the MacIntyre Trial Moot Competition was held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where Victoria Wright, Mackinley May, Leighten Janzen and Laura Friedrich were coached by Bonnie Parker and Scarlett Chan. The pair of Wright and Janzen earned second place, and Wright also won awards for Best Overall Advocate and Best Cross-Examination. This showing qualified the pair to advance to the Sopinka Cup, the national competition on March 15 - 16. At the national rounds in Ottawa, they took home third overall.

At the Gale Cup, Talia Brown, Chiara Concini, Dustin Edwards, Laura Somers and Rodrigo Vela Figueroa represented the U of A. The respondent team of Concini and Edwards advanced to the finals and finished third place overall. Concini was also awarded with the McLachlin Prize for Top Female Mooter. The team was coached by Katherine Fraser and Alexandra Dunn

The National Family Law Negotiation Competition was held online between February 29 and March 2. The team of Toveli McDonald and Alex Duica, coached by Riley Gallant, won the Top Representation Plans.

Coached by Maddison Croden at the Wilson Moot, Catherine Ford, Edward Sanders, Raya Slavik, Emma Stirling and Paige Gratton won the national championship. This award reflects a combined score of the team's written and oral advocacy scores. Sanders and Slavik mooted in the finals round against the University of Toronto to secure the U of A's victory. In addition, the team received an award for Second Place Factums, and Emma Stirling received an award for the Third Place Oralist in the competition.

On March 15, the Alberta Court of Appeal Moot was hosted in Edmonton. The U of A team won all three rounds of the competition and were the overall winners of the moot. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the U of A has won the province-wide moot. Congratulations are in order for Civil team Christian Gomes and Emma Madden-Krasnick, who were coached by Stephanie Wanke and Kyle Kawanami; Constitutional team Ezra Saul and Brandon Webb, who were coached by Andrew Foster and Don Padget; and Criminal team Neha Tadepalli and Megan White, who were coached by Jon Kerber.  

At the Morrison LLP Family Law Moot held at the Law Centre on March 16, the U of A team of Joshua Lovsund and Erika Nielsen were the winning team, with Lovsund — a second year student — also being named Top Oralist. This team was coached by Erin Morrison and Dylan Morrison. 

At the Clinton J Ford Moot, Colleen Copley, Chloe Lynds, Stephan Raitz and Jonathan Sokolowski were coached by Stella Varvis. Colleen Copley and Chloe Lynds were declared the winners.

Awards and Recognitions

At the Harold G Fox IP Moot held in Toronto from February 23 - 24, the team of Swaleha Ahmed, Evan Jacka, Jordan Murray and Tina Pashootan represented the U of A. The pair of Jacka and Pashootan won the Second-Place Respondent Factum award. They were coached by Tesia Doblanko and Chris Samuel.

At the Davies Canadian Corporate / Securities Moot, Harry Cho, Cole Matthew Edwards, Joshua Kim, Judy Liang and Markis Banek were coached by Matt Anderson and Morgan Deacon. The team was celebrated by the Davies' organizing team as very high performing across the board, and won second best factum.

The U of A was proud to be represented by Allison Caslor, Ana Catuneanu, Supreet Singh and Jacob Sperling on March 16 at the Bennett Jones Health Law Moot hosted at the University of Calgary. Catuneanu took home the prize for top oralist. The team was coached by Beth Jonah and Rayna Lew.

All Moots

From February 1 - 2 in Toronto, Haley Calder, Marlee Chrystian, Kailyn Etty and Arpita Gupta kicked off this season of mooting competitions at the Julius Alexander Isaac Diversity Moot and were coached by Alex Bernard.

Also in Toronto in the days following, the Mathews Dinsdale National Labour Arbitration Moot took place. The U of A’s Lucas Novak and Sara Ugljesic were contestants and were coached by David Williams and Kristan McLeod.

From February 22 - 24 in Ottawa, Hal Smith, Ama Aidoo, Vivien Stefanic, Isaac Belland and Olive Bensler competed at the Jessup International Law Moot. They were coached by Péter Szigeti.

At the Immigration Law Moot from February 29 - March 2 in Toronto, the U of A was well represented by Hayley AuCoin, Riley Bushell, Furyal Hussain, Becky Thera and Jessica Csandl. They were coached by Megan Dawson. 

That same weekend, also in Toronto, Purvi Dhaliwal, Erwin Kwok, Matthew Ryan, Alexandra Zvanovec and Mneet Sidhu competed at the Bowman National Tax Moot and were coached by James Yaskowich and Zachary Gee. 

Meanwhile, in Calgary, Michael Bradley, Shannon MacNamara, Tayler Tallent, James Louis Larouche-Paquet and Damon Atwood were competing at the Laskin Moot. They were coached by Rob Drummond.

In Kamloops from March 8 - 9, the U of A cheered on Megan Reti, Rebekah Mitchell, Crystal Hayden and Connor Meeker at the Kawaskimhon Moot. This team was coached by Koren Lightning-Earle and Hero Laird.

And lastly — but certainly not least — on March 9 - 10 in Windsor, Ontario, Mia Viana, Jamie Birker, Celeste Kwok and Grace Lo represented the U of A at the Canadian Client Consultation Competition and were coached by Barb Acton, Farrel Shadlyn and Lynn Parish.

Congratulations to all for yet another incredible year of mooting!