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AUT-NZBA Mooting Competition 2023 winners

The New Zealand Bar Association | Ngā Ahorangi Motuhake o te Ture (NZBA) was delighted to sponsor this year’s AUT-NZBA Mooting Competition 2023.  The AUT-NZBA Mooting Competition is part of an elective course, Adversarial Advocacy, offered at AUT Law School.  We are pleased to support AUT’s approach to encouraging advocacy skills. 

On 12 December 2023, the final round of the moot was held at the moot courtroom of MC. The finalists’ mooting skills were put to the test by a panel of judges: High Court Judge, Justice David Johnstone, Paul David KC (President Elect of the NZBA), and Rachael Reed KC (Council member of NZBA).

Our warm congratulations to the winners, Cathrine Grobler and Georgia Danford. Georgia was also awarded the title of best speaker at the final moot.

The other two finalists were Julie Vidovich and Isaac Beaver. All finalists emerged from two rounds of competition and from more than 40 students who entered the heats earlier this month. 

The Bar Association would like to thank all of its members who supported this competition, including Bar Council member Kellie Arthur for all her work behind the scenes. Course lecturers and organisers for the moot (Professor Kris Gledhill, Matthew Mortimer-Wang (Meredith Connell), Angus Graham and Yvonne Mortimer-Wang (co-chair of the NZBA Advocacy Committee), would like to note with gratitude:

• The support from Meredith Connell, who provided the moot courtroom for both semi-final and final rounds of the moot and catering for both evenings.
• The moot judges who have taken time from their busy schedule to judge different rounds of the moot. The semi-final judges were: Stephen Hunter KC, Ish Jayanandan (NZBA Council Member), Sam Wimsett, Nick Williams. The heat judges: Katherine Anderson, Raewyn McCausland, Chen Jiang, Julie Ding 丁嘉昱, Augustine Choi, Josh Suyker, Jae Jun Kim, Michael Kilkelly, Alec Dawson, and external moderator Natalie Town. 
• The guest speakers for the course, who inspired the students with their career tips and insights into their respective litigation practice areas: Kellie Arthur (NZBA Council Member), Deborah Manning, Nixon Fong, Matthew Nathan, Brian Dickey, Katie Hogan and Sam Wimsett (again!).