Mooting

Mooting at LSE

Mooting has a proud tradition in the LSE Law School, with LSE students participating in several major academic moots every year, including the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, the Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot, the ESU-Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition, the Atkin Chambers Commercial Law Moot, and more.

LSE is also the host of the LSE-Featherstone LGBT+ Moot.

The LSE Students Union is very active in mooting, via the LSE Bar & Chambers division of the LSE Law Society.

For 2022-23 the LSE Law School’s Academic Director of Mooting is Dr Luke McDonagh, who can be contacted at l.t.mcdonagh@lse.ac.uk

LSE Schools Mooting Competition

During 2021-22 LSE Law School hosted the inaugural LSE Schools Mooting Competition, which saw eight state schools participate in oral rounds. The final took place in December 2021 between Sixth Form students from Camden School for Girls (Winner) and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School (Runners up). The competition was organised by the LSE Law School and the LSE Bar & Chambers division.

The 2022-23 LSE Schools Mooting Competition came to a close on the 26^th January 2023 with the grand final. The competition, now an annual part of the LSE calendar after last year’s inaugural event, features student mooters from UK state schools. Overall, seven state schools participated in 2022-23. The two highest ranked teams were invited to the LSE campus, to the final which took place in the Moot Court Room. Kingsbury High School (Rutvi Shah and Johann Pereira) argued for the appellants, and Rutlish School (Aidan Powley and Ted Mikhailov) acted as respondents. The judicial panel was made up of the Dean of LSE Law School, Prof. David Kershaw, along with Dr Luke McDonagh (Assistant Professor), Dr Luminita Olteanu (LSE Fellow), and Fee Robinson (LLB student and representative of the LSE Bar and Chambers Society). The panel was very impressed with the presentations made by both sides, with the Dean commending the student mooters for their persuasive arguments and technical qualities. After a close final, Kingsbury High School was held to be the overall Winner of the LSE Schools Moot Competition for 2022-23, with Rutlish as Runners up. The competition was again organised by the LSE Law School and the LSE Bar & Chambers division, with special thanks to Fee Robinson.
 

2023

LSE has submitted teams in 2022-23 for the national round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong, and the Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot, with the LSE team getting through successfully to the oral round in March 2023.

2022

Well done to the LSE team of 3^rd year LLB students - David Moon, Hanna Stromberg and Katerina Polychronopolou - who competed at the Oxford International IP Moot on Thurs 17^th and Friday 18^th March. They won 3 out of 4 opening round matches, and came very close to making the Quarter Finals in an incredibly competitive competition. The team was coached by Dr Luke McDonagh, with additional coaching from Dr Martin Husovec and two PhD candidates, Alexandra Sinclair and Shingi Masanzu.

Examples of Past Successes for LSE Law students in external moot competitions
 

Vis Moot 2020-21 and 2019-20

In 2020-21 LSE students Weiran Liu, Sophie Low, Sze Hian Ng, Yan Chuan Ng, Jiayue Ma and Qing Tanghas achieved the best performance in LSE history in the oral rounds of the Willem C. Vis Moot by reaching the last 8 out of 357 teams, also receiving an Honourable Mention under the Eric E. Bergsten Award (Team Orals).

In 2019-20 students Diana Stoean, Jacob Mills, Jason J Lin, Su Nahmias, Warren Lampson Suen, and Wui Long made up the LSE team. Their coaches were Shaurya Upadhyay, Elliott Couper and Aarya Dixit. The team won the prestigious Pieter Sanders Award for Claimant Memorandum and also received a honourable mention for the Werner Melis Award for Respondent Memorandum.

Atkin Chambers Commercial Law Moot 2018

Students Anastasia Tropsha (LLM student at LSE Law) and Josiah Senu (LLB student at LSE Law) were both winners in the Atkin Chambers Commercial Law Moot on 28 Februrary 2018. Finalists were assessed on their written submissions as well as advocacy on the day and the feedback from judges proved useful; such as advice on suitable speaking speed, and the ability to respond to the judge’s questions. All four of participants, Griffith Cheng, Bowen Zhang, Josiah Senu and Anastasia Tropsha enjoyed the experience, as well as the opportunity to meet barristers from Atkin Chambers after the event and talk about their work and the set. Both Josiah and Anastasia were awarded with the prize of mini-pupillage at Atkin Chambers.

Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Moot 2011

LSE mooters Adam Burk (LLB ’12), Tor Tarantola (MSc ‘11, Social & Cultural Psychology), and Ling Yah Wong (LLB ’12) won the 2011 Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot. The competition was held at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, on 18-19 March. Twenty-two shortlisted teams were invited to take place in the oral round based on the best written submissions, which were selected by lawyers at Bird & Bird. Teams from India, Singapore, Australia, Canada, France, the United States, and the UK took part. The final rounds were judged by practising IP lawyers and judges.

LawCareers.Net Award

The Bar and Chambers Division of the LSESU Law Society won the LawCareers.Net award in 2018 for "best mooting activities”. The 2018 LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards, sponsored by DWF LLP, took place on Thursday 15 March 2018 in Painter's Hall, London. The aim of the awards is simple: to highlight and celebrate the great work that societies at campuses up and down the country do, and the fantastic events and opportunities they create for their members.