Schulich School of Law students Elizabeth Matheson and Anthony Buckland took home top prize at the 20th annual McKelvey Cup Moot, the Atlantic region's most competitive moot. With this victory, the Schulich Law team has won the competition four of the last six years.
Student Eliza Richardson also received the award for best cross examination, as she and her partner Justin Monahan defeated a team from Universit茅 de Moncton.
"Without Eliza and Justin keeping us on our toes, we very likely would not have been as successful as we were in the McKelvey competition," say Elizabeth and听Anthony.
The McKelvey Cup, which took place virtually on February 18-20, is a trial moot in which students do a mock jury trial. Each student goes through a direct and a cross examination, and either an opening or a closing statement. The Schulich Law team was coached by Jeremy Smith, Brian Casey QC, and Michael Scott.
"This experience is unlike anything else you will get in law school,鈥� added the students.
Elizabeth and Anthony will now represent the region at the national that will be hosted virtually from Ottawa this March.
Taking it virtual
At one time, the idea that Zoom meetings would be used for mock jury trials was hard to imagine. However, this year鈥檚 teams had to adapt to this virtual reality.
鈥淭he preparation was challenging (because trials depend on assessing your witness and your audience). A virtual moot deprives the performer of the assessment information he or she would have in real life: they can't see if the judge or jury is on the correct page of the exhibit, whether the judge needs a pause to take a note, or notice when someone is starting to rise for an objection,鈥� explains coach Casey. 鈥淭hat lack of feedback was challenging for everyone - and will be familiar to those who have tried to teach or learn over Zoom.鈥�
Although the virtual moot was unfamiliar territory for everyone involved, overall it was a success.
鈥淚t is always satisfying to watch students master new skills that they first had to struggle with," says Casey. "This year we had the chance to do that together, because we all needed to learn the skills to transition from a real world to a virtual one."
Next up 鈥� nationals
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No law school has won the Sopinka Cup, the National competition, more often than Schulich Law.
"We are both excited and honoured to be representing Schulich Law and the Atlantic region at the Sopinka Cup in Ottawa," say the students. "We feel that this competition has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of law school which we would highly recommend to anyone interested in trial litigation."
鈥淲e are especially thankful to our coaches, Brian, Jeremy and Mike, for helping us develop the skills we needed to win at the regional competition, as well as our teammates, Eliza Richardson and Justin Monahan. They both deserve enormous recognition for their skills, support, and accomplishments."