UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 07 | April 5, 2001

Winning Law teams lead way in making their case

Up and coming lawyers from UBC face off in international competition

It is no moot point -- UBC Law students excel in national and in international competition.

Three of six national moot competitions have been won this year by teams from UBC and members of the teams have won numerous individual honours. Two of the teams are now competing at the international level.

UBC teams earned first place in the Corporate/Securities competition and the Wilson and Jessup national moot competitions in February. The client counselling team also won the regional competition and as the top Canadian team will compete internationally in New Zealand next week. The Jessup team is taking part in the international round in Washington, D.C. this week.

"This unprecedented success is a source of tremendous pride among the entire faculty and university," says Law Dean Joost Blom. "It is a result of hard work and talent, but also the fact that we enjoy enthusiastic support from the bench and the bar."

Local judges and lawyers devote time to practise with and talk to UBC teams, says Elizabeth Edinger, the associate dean of Law. Practitioners who are former competitive mooters have a tradition of passing on their experience, she adds.

"For the students themselves and their coaches from the faculty and legal profession, preparing for moot competitions is very intense," she says. "They often miss classes and work through the night in the Law library."

For the members of the Wilson team, it is well worth the effort.

Named for Justice Bertha Wilson, the competition revolves around charter issues of equality. In the final, the team argued against the University of Toronto before Supreme Court Justice Louis Lebel on criminal code provision for the protection of private records.

Team members, affectionately know as the `Wilson mooters,' say it's as close as it gets to the real thing and winning both the oral and written competition was a real bonus. They stayed up for three and four days at a time and gave up December break.

The Corporate/Securities team comprises Gera Grinberg, Jay Kesten, Brooke Jamison, Monica Rakhinshteyn and Amandeep Sandhu. The faculty adviser is Assoc. Prof. Barry Slutsky. It is sponsored by Borden Ladner Gervais.

The Wilson team includes Ali Kanji, Jason Kuzminski, Jen Brough, Micheal Vonn and Robert Diab. The faculty advisers are Prof. Robin Elliot and Lindsay Lyster. It is sponsored by Heenan Blaikie.

The Jessup team is made up of Don Montrichard, Monique Pongracic-Speier, Brian Sims and Danielle Topliss. The faculty adviser is Assoc. Prof. Ian Townsend-Gault. It is sponsored by Fasken, Martineau, DuMoulin.

The Client Counselling team members are Christopher Young, Parmjit Singh Pawa, Toireasa Jespersen-Nelson. The adviser is Doug Cochran. The team is currently unsponsored.