NEWS

ECC-SAL International Mooting Competition 2015

Audience in the auditorium witnessing the finalists in action

Sometime later this year, Raeza Khaled Salem Ibrahim and Sadhana Devi from Drew & Napier LLC will find themselves in the hallowed hallways of the London office of Essex Court Chambers. There, they will be greeted at the entrance by cheerful receptionists, and an impressive name board advertising the door of Essex Court Chambers, many of whom are widely acknowledged as the leading barristers in their field. To say that they are privileged would be, to most of their peers, an understatement. 

But it was a privilege that was well-earned. Champions of the 2015 Essex Court Chambers-Singapore Academy of Law (“ECC-SAL”) International Mooting Competition organised for junior practitioners, the all-expenses paid two-week internship was the just reward that Raeza and Sadhana deserved, having emerged victors in four gruelling elimination rounds over three intense days of competition before prevailing in a closely contested finals over worthy opponents, Sylvia Koh and Ervin Tan from Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow and Michael Hwang Chambers respectively. The esteemed panel for the finals comprised Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy, Roderick Cordara QC and Gourab Banerji SA, all of whom spared no effort in dissecting each and every argument canvassed with a lethal combination of surgical precision interspersed with sheer brute force of rhetoric. Needless to say, each of the finalists more than held their own. The Judges and audience were treated to a fine demonstration of intellectual prowess and lingual dexterity.   

This year’s mooting competition was the largest ever with 28 teams. It was also the first time that the competition, into its fourth edition, was opened to teams outside of Singapore. Although there was some uncertainty over the level of interest that lawyers outside of Singapore would have in a competition that has hitherto been limited to lawyers practising in Singapore, those concerns proved to be unfounded. With eight teams from four major regional jurisdictions – Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, and Malaysia – seizing the opportunity to pit their advocacy skills against the very best that Singapore has to offer, the competition was brimming with talent, each with their unique advocacy styles and litigation skill sets. Judges in every round of the competition were uniformly fulsome in their praise of the standard of oral advocacy. On that note, the award for the Best Oralist of the competition went to Jules Moxon from the Australian office of Allens. The award for the Best Memorandum went to Justices’ Law Clerks, Ramasamy Nachiappan and Devathas Satianathan from the Supreme Court of Singapore.  

By the time Raeza and Sadhana find themselves hopelessly lost in the impossibly convoluted corridors of the collection of five buildings that is the premises of the London office of Essex Court Chambers, the organisers will have commenced preparations for yet another successful edition of the competition. While the international teams did not taste success this year, their desire to learn, refine their competencies and excel was manifestly evident. Together with the substantial increase in participation of teams from Singapore law firms this year, perhaps an indication of the solid support amongst Singapore law firms for the training and exposure that the ECC-SAL International Mooting Competition offers junior practitioners, there is every reason to be excited about the future of the competition.
 

Nicholas Poon
    Winner (with Daniel Gaw)
    ECC-SAL Singapore Mooting Competition 2013/14

Judges for the Final: Gourab Banerji SA, Justice Vinodh Coomaraswarmy and Roderick Cordara QC

Winners of this year’s ECC-SAL International Mooting Competition 2015: Sadhana Devi and Raeza Khaled Salem Ibrahim