NZ Law Students Put Australians On Notice

New Zealand Law Students Put Australians On Notice

The New Zealand Law Students’ Association (NZLSA) is celebrating the success of Kiwi law students on the international stage this week and anticipating more world-class achievements in the weeks ahead.

The annual Australian Law Students Association (ALSA) Conference, to be held in Adelaide over 12 July – 18 July, provides New Zealand law students a chance to go head to head with the best Australia has to offer. 40 competitors from five New Zealand law schools will compete in Negotiation, Client Interviewing, Witness Examination and Mooting competitions against 32 Australian university teams. New Zealand teams have been exceptionally successful at Australian championships in recent years. In 2009, New Zealand teams provided 5 of the 8 finalists in the four main competitions, winning Witness Examination (Victoria University) and Client Interviewing (Canterbury University), and placing second in Negotiation (Otago University), Mooting (Auckland University), and Client Interviewing (Victoria University). These results, and those of 2008 and the foregoing years, attest to New Zealand law students’ disproportionately strong performances in international legal skills competitions.

This year has already seen two outstanding successes, with New Zealand law students winning the grand final of the World Client Counseling Championships, reaching the semi-finals of the World Negotiation Championships, and competing at the prestigious Jessup Moot Competition in Washington D.C.

In May, the 2009 Client Interviewing winners (Guy Carter and Juilia Whitehead from the University of Canterbury) defeated teams from 22 countries to win the Louis M Brown Client Counseling Competition in Hong Kong. Most recently, Roshni Kaur and Mitch Singh of Otago University made it to the semi-finals of the World Negotiation Championships on the Gold Coast, Australia.

President of the NZLSA, Phil Thomson, says that he is very proud of the achievements of New Zealand law students recently. "These sorts of results should have the Australians on notice that the Kiwi teams will be tough competition at the 2010 Australian champs – they also show that we can match it with the best around the world."

The Otago Negotiators and Canterbury Client Interviewers were coached by Selene Mize, Senior Lecturer at Otago University. Selene has been a great friend of the NZLSA for many years, putting an immeasurable amount of time and effort into coaching New Zealand teams at international competitions.

These international successes flow from strong domestic competitions run at each Law School by the NZLSA and our sponsors. The NZLSA is immensely grateful for the continued support of our competition sponsors who provide judges, problems and financial sponsorship to NZLSA to run these competitions: Bell Gully (Mooting); Buddle Findlay (Negotiation); Minter Ellison (Witness Examination); and Russell McVeagh (Client Interviewing)

ENDS

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