Two former Victoria University of Wellington students have mooted their way to victory against 233 other Law students from 59 countries in the sixteenth annual Vienna Moot held over Easter.
The team of Katherine Belton and David Hume talked their way through four knock-out rounds to reach the final against opponents from the ILS Law College at Pune University, India, winning the Frederic Eisemann Award.
Their mentor and VUW Law Faculty Member, Dr Petra Butlerm puts the team’s victory down to “the flexibility, ability to concentrate on the main issues, and professionalism” of both Butler and Hume.
For seven months Butler and Hume trained hard to hone their mooting skills in preparation for the oral arguments, participating in 25 practice moots in Wellington, and 30 pre-moots at a number of European universities.
In addition to the expertise of Dr Butler, Belton and Hume received coaching from Richard May of Wellington’s Chapman Tripp, and Michael Cavanaugh of Heany & Co. in Auckland. Both were former mooters themselves.
The final was held in front of thousands of students and arbitrators and consisted of submitting written memoranda before the hearing of an oral argument based upon international commercial and arbitration laws. According to Dr Butler, “Long hours of research and writing went into this competition.”
Both Belton and Hume now work for Wellington Law firms, Belton for Simpson Grierson and Hume for Russell McVeagh.