Not every problem, however, needs to be addressed by regulation and (in this writer’s view) young practitioners have a personal responsibility to seek out opportunities to improve and advance their advocacy skills. One option is to moot.

 

Mooting is a staple while at university but a unicorn in practice. There is just one competition for young lawyers; the Essex Court Chambers–Singapore Academy of Law (“ECC-SAL”) International Mooting Competition. 

 

Now in its fifth edition, the ECC-SAL moot is the competition to participate in and to win. This year’s competition was excellent. Twenty-two teams from Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia battled hard through five rounds over just three days for a place in the finals. 

 

The finals, on 12 January 2016, was a demonstration of quality advocacy by the Justices Law Clerks̕ team of Mr Devathas Satianathan and Ms Yeo Geok Min, and the TSMP Law Corporation team of Ms Reshma Nair and Mr Cephas Yee. The packed Supreme Court Auditorium watched intently as the young advocates were “grilled” by Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy, Mr Roderick Cordara QC and Mr Gourab Banerji SA on the law and their case theories. 

 

The Judges were impressed by the skills of each finalist. Justice Coomaraswamy commented that “the quality of advocacy was uniformly very high” with Mr Cordara QC adding that each “clearly have a bright future in the world of advocacy”. 

 

After careful deliberation, the moot judges declared Mr Satianathan and Ms Yeo the winners of the moot “by a whisker” and their victory was well deserved. The duo can now look forward to their all-expenses paid two-week internship at Essex Court Chambers sometime in 2016, and a year’s worth of bragging rights. 

 

Congratulations must also be extended to the competition’s Best Oralist, Mr Aleksander Georgiev (Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP), and the winners of the Best Memorandum award, Ms Jasmine Yong and Mr Kenneth Kong (KhattarWong/Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC). 

 

At the risk of sounding clichéd, the real winners were actually every young lawyer who participated in the moot this year (and each year before) – they made the effort to find time and expend energy to make sure they were seen and heard. They are better advocates for it, regardless of the outcome. 

 

A young lawyer’s practice need not be limited to preparing for discovery, doing online research and making first-cuts of written submissions. All it takes is some desire and perseverance to take ownership of your personal development. Mooting is an excellent step in the right direction and a necessary one if one intends to act as counsel one day. Beyond personal development, mooting also affords the opportunity to be “seen” by senior lawyers and jurists, increasing one’s profile and network.

 

In short, if you are a young lawyer, and you have a voice, stop procrastinating. Get out of the office and “on your feet”.