Dundee Mooters celebrate a top year

Dundee Mooting Society has had one of its most successful years in recent history, both for increasing membership numbers and top results in competition.

Mooting is essentially a mock legal debate before a judge on a point or points of law and undergraduate students have been strongly encouraged by the Department of Law to participate in mooting workshops and competitions to prepare them for their professional development.

This support has paid off. 2005/2006 saw Dundee mooters Bilal Khan and Colin Hamilton represent Dundee in the Oxford University Press National Mooting Competition while Michael Duffy and Alan Finlay progressed to the semi-final stage of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting Mooting Competition. Alison Blair and Lara Gibson are through to the quarter finals of the English Speaking Union/Essex Court Chambers National Mooting Competition, which takes place in May.

Nicola McLaren and Judith Pilans (pictured) are congratulated for their win in the Alexander Stone Mooting Competition. They defeated Strathclyde University in the final before Lord Hodge in Glasgow in March.

Membership of the Dundee Mooting Society has also seen increases in numbers in the past year, with about 80 students taking part in initial mooting workshops at the beginning of the academic year.

"Workshops had a very positive effect on Mooting Society member numbers, since there are now approx 60 to 70 student members of the Mooting Society. This is a very positive increase from three years ago when the student numbers were down to 3!" said Department of Law mooting co-ordinator David Cabrelli.

"Indeed, around 75% of all Mooting Society members are active Mooters, whether in the LexisNexis internal competition or external national competitions."

Almost 60 students participated in the LexisNexis internal mooting competition, which is run by the Mooting Society, this year. The final was held in the Moot Court room in March before Baroness Clark of Carlton, a former Dundee graduate and lecturer who acted as the judge in the final.