Competitions
If reading the textbooks is proving too dry and you are wondering what a true career in the legal industry is like the Competitions Portfolio is here to help. The AULSS runs an array of competitions with the option to compete at the Australian Law Students’ Association Annual Conference.
Competitions are perfect opportunity to learn and practice new skills in a friendly environment. Each year guest lawyers and past competition winners are called back to judge the competitions, providing an immensely beneficial experience for both participants and spectators. For more information please contact competitions@aulss.org.
Publications
About Our Competitions
Client Interviewing
The Client Interviewing Competition is open to all students! Recommended for second Years and above due to the focus on interpersonal skills.
The Client Interview competition is a simulated interview between a team of two students acting as lawyers, and a client seeking an initial legal consultation.
The competition focuses more on interviewing skills, as such, is the perfect competition for students in lower year levels. Please note that competitors are still expected to have a basic grasp of the law.
External Competitions
To be updated
Criminal Law Moot
The Criminal Law Moot is available to all students. It is greatly recommended that students complete LAW 2599 - Criminal Law before competing in this moot.
Ran in Semester 2, the Criminal Law Moot allows students the opportunity to practice within a jurisdiction often not utilized in our Open and Novice Moots. Students prepare written submissions over a week and then make oral arguments before judges. The judges will question students on the law and fact surrounding their submissions.
Teams are made up of two people (senior counsel and junior counsel).
First Year Moot
The First Year Moot is open to all students in their first year of a Bachelor of Laws.
Run in semester 2, this competition provides students with vital experience to develop their research, legal writing and advocacy skills. This competition uses a more limited range of problem questions suitable to the knowledge first year students. Students prepared their submissions over a week-long period before presenting their oral arguments in front of a judge. Both a senior and junior counsel present for each side (applicant and respondent); however, each competitor is scored individually.
After competing in the First Year Moot competition, having gained valuable experience and feedback as to their legal research and presentation skills students commonly progress to the Open Moot competition in later years.
Kain Lawyers Mergers and Acquisitions
Recommended for second years and above.
Mergers and Acquisitions is a fundamental part of corporate law and this competition is a fantastic way for students to learn the relevant law and skills.
This competition runs over a shorter season, only three weeks and involves first preparing written advice to your client before having a meeting with them in which you interview them and present your advice orally. Successful competitors from this first stage then move into a negotiations round in which teams must attempt to come to a successful resolution for the merger/acquisition.
Negotiations
Recommended for students of all year levels.
In Negotiations, two teams of two solicitors meet to discuss a dispute between their clients. Each team is given a brief of secret facts about their client’s situation, including what the client wants and doesn’t want. It is the job of the solicitors to negotiate together in good faith to resolve the dispute in a way that makes both parties happy. For this reason, the winner is not necessarily the team that walks away with the best deal but the team who uses strategy and tactics to obtain the most favourable outcome.
Novice Moot
The Novice Moot is open to all students who have not reached the finals stage of any other moot. However, because the competition features a broader array of practice areas than the First Year Moot, we recommend the Novice Moot for second-year students and above.
If you are beyond your first year but not quite confident enough for the Open Moot, the Novice Moot is a great place to start! Mooting is one of the best ways to improving your legal reasoning and public speaking skills. In the Novice Moot, competitors argue appellate cases by preparing their written submissions over a week-long period and then arguing their case before a judge.
Teams are made up of two people (senior and junior counsel) but competitors are judged on their individual performance!
Open Moot
Recommended for students in second-year and above.
In Open Moot students compete as counsel in an appellate matter in a superior court. Students prepare written submissions over a week and then make oral arguments before judges. The judges will question students on the law and fact surrounding their submissions.
Teams may be comprised of two or three students (note only two students can make oral submissions for their team each round) and they are judged as a team.
This competition is a fantastic stepping-stone to other moots such as the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition or the Administrate Appeals Tribunal National Mooting Competition.
Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot
This Moot is coordinated primarily by Dr. Stacey Henderson as part of the ‘International Law Moot: Topic – International Humanitarian Law’ course.
There will be calls for applications to compete in this competition not for course credit. Students with an interest in International Law are encouraged to participate.
Witness Examination
Recommended for second years and above (you can also volunteer in this competition by acting as a witness).
In Witness Examination competitors simulate a civil or criminal trial. Most rounds are conducted in teams of two (senior and junior counsel) and one non-competitive witness for each side. Competitors are given witness statements and information 90 minutes before the trial commences and must prepare a short case in that time. They deliver opening statements to the judge, question witnesses and then summarise their case while attempting to put forward the best case possible. The competition involves quick thinking, improvisation and the ability to go toe-to-toe with a usually uncooperative witness!
External Competitions
The Competitions Portfolio often receives news from universities and coordinators of competitions external to the University of Adelaide about the ability for Adelaide Law Students to compete in their competitions!
Please check this tab regularly if you are interested in external competitions, there may be something of interest to you!
ALSA Competitions
Winners of our internal competitions are eligible to compete on a national level at the ALSA conference.
Inter-Varsity Competitions
SULS vs AULSS Negotiations Competition
Recommended for second years and above.
AULSS v FLSA v USALSA Client Interviewing Competition
Recommended for second years and above.
Commercial & Legal Property Law Competition
Recommended for penultimate and final year students.
Competitors compete in teams of two to represent the purchaser of a property with a commercial tenancy. They will be presented with a scenario where they will be expected to provide written advice (no more than two pages) to their client.
Teams with the best written advice will advance to an Oral Advice round where they present their written advice to a judge acting as their client.
Plot twist, in this Oral Advice round teams will receive a surprise fact from the client and will be asked to address the client’s new concerns.
2022 Winners
Annie Yuan and Aryan Banerjee