St. Augustine Legal Affairs (STALA) Issue 2 | Page 33

excellence and I urge each and
every student to participate in
future competitions.

give other students who
are interested in Mooting?

How did the preparation
for the Moot Competition affect your usual
Law workload?

Do it! There is not an inkling
of doubt in my mind that each
and every law student has the
capability to be a mooter. You
will not be alone and once you
recognise this the fear of being
rejected quickly flutters away.
Happiness is not the lack of
problems or the denial of trials
but the acceptance that we can
overcome them. As an individual and as a people. We are the
future lawyers of the Caribbean and as we recognise this we
know mooting isn’t an option
but a necessity.

Enough credit and praise cannot
be given to my teammates, Ms.
Perusha Lord and Mr. Rajiv
Sochan; who stood with me and
shared the workload equally at
all times. This together with our
faculty support team of Mr Affonso and Mrs Elias-Roberts
made the workload manageable.
But I must admit at no point
did it feel like work to me. I
will definitely suffer the full
reach of the law as I will be
found guilty of the following –
“choose a job you love, and you
will never have to work a day in
your life,” Confucius. The 6am
practice sessions, the constant
communication with teammates,
the steady and unwavering trips
to the library were just some of
the things involved. Becoming a
lawyer is within each and every
one of us and this competition
was mere practice for the rest of
our lives. Loving law is just the
start. Loving the work of law is
the means.
Yes, the workload was heavy.
Yes, it was essentially six courses we bore the weight of. No,
our tutors did not care. But the
work is worth it and the feeling you get during that moment
when you are making your submissions to a panel of judges far
older and far more experienced
in more ways than you and I can
count; is worth it.
What advice would you

Any other comments?
Utilise the libraries of Hugh
Wooding and CCJ as well as
our own International Relations and Alma Jordon libraries. Your lecturers and Ms J.
Rajah only wish to aid you in
your endeavours; allow them this
opportunity.
Practice practice practice. Present in front the mirror and don’t
be afraid to talk to a family
member or friend. They often see
things in ways our legal minds
forget. Even the youngest can
point out some obvious flaws in
your speaking technics that you
missed.
Above all else, do not forget to
think outside the box. You are
the sum of all your experiences
and that is what mooting seeks
to add to.

PERUSHA LORD

stand the Fact pattern?

The fact pattern was quite
straight forward. My family
and friends always tell me that
As the Law faculty is a new I over think things. This, I used
faculty, the initial preparation to my advantage while dealing
was done by the Law Society. with this fact pattern. I thought
Students had to enter a Moot- of every angle possible, indeed it
ing competition in order to do was time consuming.
Mooting as a course in the next
semester. However as the next What advice would you
semester started, our lectures give other students who
begun to guide and give us the are interested in Mootmuch needed assistance. We ing?
were drilled military style by our
coach Mr. Affonso. Although Do it! Do it! Do it! That’s putthis was pretty intense, it ena- ting it pretty straight forward.
bled me, to be a better me. To This course would help you, in
give all that I had, and when I more ways than you think. For
thought I had given enough, to persons that are self-conscious
dig deeper. We were taught court and shy, it would give you the
room etiquette; also the proper much needed backbone, which is
lay out of our arguments, and a necessity in this field of work.
announcing appearances; added On the other hand for those who
to that, how to address the judg- are pompous and feel they know
es and the court as a whole. All it all, or overly proud, it would
these things might seem simple, put reality in front of you and
teach you that life is a learning
but that was far from it.
experience and we do not know
How did you feel when it all.
you were in front the
Any other comments?
judges?
How does the Law Faculty prepare you for this?

It was truly a feeling of honour,
accomplishment and joy wrapped
up with humility. I told myself,
“This is what I worked for,
let’s get this job done.” While
addressing the judges what was
also a dominant thought in my
mind was, “Is this what you
want to do for the rest of your
life?” I was able to positively
confirm, that I can see myself
doing nothing else, a childhood
dream, coming into fruition.
How were you able to
deal with and under-

This is a time in our life in
which we should take opportunities and make the best of it.
We may not be perfect at what
we do, however with practice we
could very well come close to being perfect. In this journey being
taken, we should find our self
and be able not only to exist but
to excel.