For the second year in a row, Queen’s Law mooters are champions in the Mathews Dinsdale National Labour Arbitration Competition.
On January 28, advocates Geoff Dunlop and Adriana Zichy, both Law’19, appeared before Justice Malcolm Rowe of the Supreme Court of Canada; Ginette Brazeau, Chair of the Canada Industrial Relations Board; and Bernard Fishbein, Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. The team prevailed over the University of Toronto in the finals.
Professor Kevin Banks, returning as faculty coach for the tenth year, was full of praise. “Geoff and Adriana were poised in the face of a barrage of questions, concise and articulate in their arguments in chief, and brief but brilliant in reply,” he says.
The team had the support of Professor Emeritus Don Carter, Law’66, and Kingston labour lawyers Carol MacKillop, Law’94, and Vince Panetta, Law’95. Carter served as Dean of Law from 1993 to 1998. The trio have volunteered their time and insights many times over the past decade and Banks is “convinced that their efforts and insights have been key contributors to the success of Queen’s teams.”
Last year’s winners, Stephanie McLoughlin and Geoff Tadema, both Law’18, served as student coaches to Zichy and Dunlop. Larysa Workewych, Law’18, assisted with research.
“It was an honour to work with such a dedicated group of people, who also happen to be really fun to spend time with,” says Zichy. “I think our great working relationship was the key to our success.”
Dunlop agrees, adding that the pair were able to enjoy the argument “because of our coaches’ help with the preparation.” The mooters argued two problems about grievances. “The first involved a teacher who kept Percocet in her desk, and the second was about a janitor who refused a breathalyzer at work,” Dunlop explained. He handled the teacher’s grievance and Zichy dealt with the janitor’s.
“The moot was a scary but thrilling experience,” says Zichy. “I learned how to make a set of facts come to life and tell a story in a way that is authentic and persuasive.”
The student coaches emphasize how hard Dunlop and Zichy practised, drawing on the experience of the 2017 champions. “Geoff and Adriana gave 110 per cent each and every practice, and really made our job as coaches extremely easy, not to mention, a lot of fun,” McLoughlin explains.
Tadema believes preparation is the hardest part of mooting. The competition sets the time constraints and arbitrators ask the questions, so “good oralists are able to think on their feet while relying on knowledge of the facts and the strength of their submissions.”
“This meant numerous practice rounds with student coaches and practitioners who were able to provide invaluable feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of our arguments and cases,” says Workewych. “I'm already missing our weekly team meetings,” she adds.
Queen’s students have been strong performers in the Mathews Dinsdale moot: a team from Queen’s Law has reached the finals in six of the past 11 years.
By Alexander McPherson