Student activities continue and thrive online at the University of Law

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Student activities continue and thrive online at the University of Law

The University of Law at Guildford opened for teaching in the new normal in September 2020. Classes were carefully sized for 1 metre spacing, face coverings were worn and scheduling was strategically organised to keep staff and students safe. Those who needed to shield or to isolate were able to continue their learning through online classrooms with our usual excellent quality tutors. However, we were not going to compromise the full educational experience and so staff had to be inventive about how to continue with the extra curricular events offered to students.

This year the annual Chris Andrews memorial interviewing competition (sponsored by The Surrey Law Society) between The University of Law, Royal Holloway and The University of Surrey, took place on the morning of Saturday 28th November by Zoom. Melanie Williams (pictured) prepared the University of Law team for the competition and acted as one of the judges this year.

Students underwent a series of individual and then joint Zoom interviewing ‘auditions’ before being selected to represent The University of Law (Guildford). The subject matter of the two role plays this year were theft and defamation. This was revealed just five days prior to the competition so competitors had their work cut out. All competitor teams performed well and they should be congratulated not only for their participation but for their patience and willingness to undertake the competition online. In the end the marks were very close but Royal Holloway took 1st and 2nd place. The University of Law team were awarded a welldeserved 3rd place.

In the week commencing 9th November, Max Wilson, Katherine Wagg and Helen Carter heard seven virtual moots in the first round of the Guildford Campus mooting competition. 28 students battled to take 12 places in the 2nd round. They argued the appeal of a criminal case involving some rather tricky facts and law. You can imagine that this was very challenging for MA Law and GDL students who have only been studying law for two months. The students were brilliant at dealing with the problem and they managed to make good submissions as well as mastering their use of the collaborate classroom.

The second round was in February and judged by Andrew Austin, Luke Trim and Sarah Moon who are all barristers from Guildford Chambers. The students had to navigate the academically challenging problem of pure economic loss in a negligence case. We are extremely grateful for the support of practising barristers as the students learn so much from having a different judge and feedback each time. For the final it is hoped that a presiding Judge will attend.

Max Wilson supported a GDL team that entered themselves into the prestigious Essex Court Mooting Competition, a national mooting competition run by Essex Court Chambers. We are pleased to announce that our Mooting Team has made it through to the third round of the competition. The first round concerned a defamation problem and the second round consisted of a complex contractual problem. The team has done an impressive job to get this far, especially considering they are GDL students who have only really just started their legal journeys.

At a different end of the learning process, our newest learners in the first year of LLB have been invited to try mooting for the first time. Helen Carter who is Programme and Student Lead for Undergraduates at the Guildford campus, gave basic training before the moots. A third year student who hopes to join our BPC next year, kindly stepped forward to mentor the 12 students and give advice. This resulted in some very well presented submissions. We are so proud to have prospective barristers across all academic cohorts who are continuing to successfully train in advocacy in the collaborate classroom.

Our third student activity is negotiating. Heather Greenwood ran two separate sessions in March for the GDL and MA students with 20 students taking part altogether. The students really enjoyed learning about the process and structure of a negotiation and learning from one another’s negotiating styles. The fictious issue to be settled was a litigation matter. There had been a breach of the implied term of a contract for supply of services relating to reasonable care and skill, and reliance on an exemption clause. Proceedings had been issued and the students were tasked with reaching a settlement, because neither client really wanted to go court. All students had sight of the common documents which included the Particulars of Claim, an extract from the Defence and an expert's report, plus their own secret information (revealing fault on their client's part). In each activity group, the Claimants and Defendants prepared together, then were split into teams of two for the negotiation itself. Nearly everyone settled on surprisingly similar sums, but one group were definitely off to court! ■