Queen's Law Wins the Laskin Moot

Photo By Richard Tardif

Queen's Law's 2009 Laskin moot team receives the first-place trophy in the national competition.  (l-r) Erica Maidment, MPA'08/Law '11, Erin Collins, Law '09, Jean-Emmanuel Beaubrun, Law '09, Erin Pleet, MPA'08/Law '11, Adrian Di Lullo, Law '10, and Associate Dean (Academic) Stanley Corbett.

On February 28, 2009, the Queen's Law team brought the winning trophy home from London, Ontario, placing first in the national Laskin Moot competition out of 19 law schools.

Erin Pleet, MPA'08/Law '11, and Jean-Emmanuel Beaubrun, Law '09, represented the Appellants and Adrian Di Lullo, Law '10, and Erica Maidment, MPA'08/Law ‘11, argued for the Respondents.  The Queen's team topped the competition with an exceptional performance in each of their four rounds, defeating their opponents from Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Toronto, the University of Laval and the University of New Brunswick.

"We're thrilled with our results at this year's Laskin moot," said team researcher Erin Collins, Law ‘09. "All four mooters withstood some very tough questioning and performed brilliantly. The win was very much deserved!"

Erica placed second in the category of Best Oralist. During a moment that defined her skills, she stepped up to the plate when thrown a hard question by a judge and handled it with professionalism, tact and a bit of humour. Every member of the team also received high individual rankings.

"I think it was very impressive how well they worked together as a team," said Associate Dean (Academic) Stanley Corbett, the team's faculty coach.  "The success of a moot really depends on how well the members work together."

The Laskin Moot is a competition in constitutional and administrative law named after the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.  It is a spirited moot, known for its collegiality and sense of community. It also remains the only moot with a bilingual component, as each four-member team must include at least one oral argument in each official language.
 
Crediting much of their success to the combined knowledge and support offered to them by Corbett and Collins, the winning team was also assisted to a large degree by volunteer bilingual practice judges, including Professor Hoi Kong and LLM student Hugo Choquette, Law ‘05.  The team also credits the successful achievements of Queen's Law's moot program to Professor Rosemary King and Carol Johnson.

"Many people from last year's team helped us this year," Adrian said. "And being able to actually speak in front of two justices was such a fantastic learning experience."

"Much of the value of mooting is found during the learning and preparing for the moot, alongside the social experience of working together," observed Corbett from his position as the Laskin faculty coach over the past five years. The team learned how to work together in developing their arguments, take responsibility for their sections, be flexible in delivery and think quickly on their feet.

 "It's a lot of work but it's very rewarding," said Pleet. "It's a big commitment that we were very happy to take on and we look forward to taking on advisory roles next year. We're thrilled to be the hosts of the trophy for next year!  We can't wait to see the next generation of Laskin mooters at Queen's."