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By the Juris Education Interview Team
Ankita Shanker is the Founder & Director of the Paula Sparks World Moot on International Law and Animal Rights.
Participating in a mock trial/moot court competition helps enhance knowledge, hone skills, and develop a strong professional profile.
Because in-depth research is foundational to success in these competitions, participants deepen their subject-matter knowledge. Moreover, producing written submissions develops research and writing skills, and delivering oral submissions develops public speaking, including legal advocacy, skills.
Beyond knowledge and skills, participating in these competitions also adds to participants’ professional profile (i.e., it looks great on their CVs!), and the events where these competitions are hosted provide excellent networking opportunities.
Finally, many competitions offer prizes such as work experience to winners, which can go a long way in career development.
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges, beyond the sheer amount of work needed to succeed, involved representing a party with whose stance I didn’t personally agree. This happens more in areas of law that have a moral dimension–such as human or animal rights. Representing parties regardless of personal beliefs is great practice for the real world, where professional ethics rules typically don’t allow lawyers to refuse to represent clients based on their convictions. However, it does take some getting used to. In a mock trial or moot court setting, while the ethical dilemmas aren’t real, it may still be a challenge to convincingly advocate for a stance in which one doesn’t believe–even though these arguments are based on what the law says, divorcing the interpretation and application of law from subjective morality is not a straightforward endeavour.
The most rewarding aspect, again in my experience, was getting positive feedback from evaluators and judges on my written and oral submissions, respectively. Those few moments at the end made the countless nights spent burning the midnight oil feel well worth the time and energy invested in preparation. Feedback has the potential to validate effort, boost confidence, and motivate participants to work harder. Sometimes, when evaluators and judges are adequately impressed, they may also offer participants work experience or other opportunities which can help further the latter’s career.
By replicating real-world advocacy in an educational setting, mock trial and moot court competitions help participants develop the advocacy skills they need to succeed in the real world of litigation. In addition to developing subject-matter knowledge, participants learn the science of legal research and the art of legal argumentation (written and oral). They learn how to balance being an officer of the court and an advocate for their client. They learn how to present facts and use jurisprudence in their favour, and to respond to authority that goes against their case. They learn how to communicate with witnesses, jurors, and judges–each of which requires a different skillset to get the tone and content right. Judicial intervention, in particular, is excellent practice for learning to appropriately but effectively defend one’s arguments. The feedback received from expert evaluators and judges can provide invaluable guidance. And finally, these events typically provide excellent networking opportunities to meet experts in the field, who can be future mentors, employers, etc.
For me, these competitions have always been equal parts work and play. The two determinative factors were whether it would help develop my career, and whether I would have fun participating in it. For the latter, I’d advise students to think about the topics in which they are most interested and about which they are passionate–that would provide an excellent starting point to choose the competitions in which it will be most enjoyable for them to participate. For the former, I would advise working out which areas of law they would like to practise. Ideally, this would have the same answer as the previous question, but if it differs, add to the list of shortlisted competitions ones that cover those areas. Then, when narrowing down the list, other factors to take into account are, inter alia, the global reputation of the moot, the potential for knowledge and skill development, the networking opportunities presented, the prizes on offer, and the resource commitment required. Reading the moot materials, watching videos of past competitions, talking to former participants, etc. are all great ways to conduct research into whether a particular competition meets your needs.
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