Jordan Cook in conversation with Rachel Thomson
Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rachel Thomson, an officer from the Competitions Portfolio, to discuss the role of the portfolio within the Deakin Law Students’ Society and why it is an incredible portfolio for us to be involved in as students.
Tell me about your portfolio's role within the Deakin Law Students’ Society (DLSS)?
My portfolio is the Competitions Portfolio, and our role in the DLSS is to run the internal competitions for students. Over the course of the year, we have about five competitions that we run to help students gain practical skills and use the theory they learn in their class in a simulated environment. This helps students gain skills in mooting, interviewing clients, cross examining and applying for bail, which helps supplement the work done in the units and ensure we have a well rounded education.
What drew you to join the Competitions Portfolio and what does your role as an officer entail?
The Competitions Portfolio is the largest portfolio on the DLSS, with five offices and one director. So it was a good way to meet new people straightaway and also learn from others in the portfolio. It's also good because I have been given the chance to sit through all the heats and understand the competitions and the techniques used. Personally as well, for future competitions or even in the workforce, if I hadn't been in this role, I wouldn't have been exposed to things like how to address the court or how to do submissions and so on.
In my role I run heats, correspond with competitors and email the certificates to competitors. The competitions also have officers assigned to look after it. Currently, Alexia and I are organising the Junior Moot. So we're the ones in charge of running this competition. In this, you have to coordinate the times, participants, judges and room bookings to ensure that it can all be run smoothly, as well as delegate roles for everyone within the team to work with each other.
What are some of the events you’ve held so far this year and will be holding in the future?
We have five competitions throughout the entire year.
The first one is Senior Moot, which is similar to Junior Moot, but only for the students in their third to fifth years and therefore has a wider range of subjects due to participants having completed more of their degree. Participants had the opportunity to participate in a fake court trial with an appellant and a respondent. You're also either acting as the senior or junior counsel for each one of the teams. Then, during the competition, you just argue a case and practice addressing the court, advocating your case, setting out your submissions, all those sorts of things.
It’s similar for Junior Moot, however this one is just for first and second year students. It is also based on Contract A, so it's tailored more towards students who have done only their first year of law school. Further, we have the Bail Application competition, which is based on the Criminal Procedure unit, where you apply for bail for a person in the facts scenario, and aim to be granted bail. The other competition we have completed this year is Client Interview, which you don't need any prior experience for as it is about being able to talk to a client, ascertain the facts from the client and present in the accepted demeanour when talking with and interviewing clients. Our last competition for this year will be the Witness Examination, where you cross examine a witness. More information for this competition will come out about it as we get closer to the date.
What is your advice for students entering into competitions, especially considering the upcoming Junior Moot and for those who it may be their first time?
The main bit of advice, I'd say for all the students, would be to go have a look on our website to see our guides and all the information we've posted there. We've got ones specifically for the Senior and Junior Moots, as well as a general competition guide. I would even recommend them to students who aren’t doing competitions, just because some of the information there can be so handy. I have even looked at it for my own assessments such as bail application - just to see the ways I can address the court or read a case aloud, which you might not necessarily know.
I also would recommend reaching out to prior grand finalists as they might be able to give some advice which may be handy. They could discuss how the reached the grand final, how they organised their submissions, or even how they divided the time between the junior and senior counsel, things that you may not have thought about yet.
I'd also say to all the Junior Moot competitors, that if they might be feeling a bit nervous, I'm sure all the students competing are feeling the same way. As you know, you're all first and second year students and most likely wouldn't have competed in any of our competitions before. So I think Junior Moot is a great way to get into the competition world without too much pressure. I also think it's a good way to have something under your belt when you're further into a law degree, and it is something you can bring up at future job interviews or similar. It might make you want to do external competitions or even Senior Moot later down the track.
How can entering into competitions be beneficial for the future and your development as a student?
I think entering competitions really helps develop the practical skills you use once you're in the workplace. Even things like public speaking, legal research and developing arguments. It also gets you thinking on your feet because you will need to respond to questions that the opposition may bring up.
Court etiquette is another important skill. I’m sure that majority of students wouldn't know much court etiquette such as 'my learned friend', or addressing the judge as 'your honour'. So I think it really puts a practical lens on your studies. As mentioned earlier, it's also something you can put on your resume, which you can bring up in the future potentially when applying for clerkships in the last couple of years. I also think that if you do want to be a barrister in the future, it is really beneficial to do some mooting, as it is what you are hoping to do during your career and where you want to end up. So by practising, it helps develop those skills required further down in your career.
Lastly, it also provides for a chance to network with others; law students, students you're competing against, people who are coming in to watch the Grand Finals, the DLSS, as well as law firms who sponsor the competitions. So I think it's a really good chance to meet more people and kind of see what your career may be like in the future. It provides you with more of a well rounded experience rather than just the theory learned in class.
