UCL seals second victory in London Universties Mooting Shield

University College London (UCL) proved that it is the top dog in mooting after securing a second consecutive victory in the London Universities Mooting Shield (LUMS).

UCL fought off a stunning performance from the London School of Economics (LSE) at the grand final last night (18 March) at the offices of magic circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O).

The UCL team headed up by lead counsel Daniel Law represented the appellant Heathwick Airport while LSE acted for the respondents Anarchists Against Aviation in a fictitious House of Lords hearing concerning the freedom of assembly enshrined in article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Although the appeal was dismissed UCL clenched the victory on the basis of putting on the best performance of the night.

On announcing the winners chair of the four-judge moot panel Andrew Onslow QC of 3 Verulam Buildings said: “The final decision was not at all easy to make and was one we came to make by a whisker.”

UCL”s Law said of his team’s victory: “The standard of the judging has been fantastic this year and it was a real privilege to stand before such a prestigious judging panel.”

“Whenever you start mooting you’ll always have a terrible moment such as losing the bundle. But it soon becomes fun in a kind of sadistic way,” added Law.

The other judges for the night were Mark Baxter, Andrew Denny and Lucy Theis QC of 5 Stone Buildings, A&O and Field Court Chambers respectively.

Though his team had to settle for second place LSE’s third junior counsel Azan Marwah walked away with the award for Consistently Best Advocacy.

Meanwhile, the University of Greenwich scooped the Spirit of the Shield Gong and London South Bank University’s Conor McCabe won the Thakker Award named after one of the LUMS founders Krishnan Thakker.

In addition to Law the members of the winning UCL team were James Chandler, Chiraag Patel and Lisa Quelch.

The LSE team also comprised Grace Cheng, Panayiotis Demetriades and Amani Hind Essoussi.

The LUMS 2008-09 committee is made up of Daniel Jackson, John Harrison and Daniel Peat.