WHAT STUDENTS SAY ABOUT
ALSA COMPETITIONS
With semester 2 just around the corner, many of you are probably thinking, “where did my winter break go?” Ordinarily, I’m
in the same boat, but this year was a bit different. I had the opportunity to attend the Australian Law Students Association
(ALSA) Conference as a competitor for the ALSA Client Interviewing Competition over July in sunny Brisbane.
Having never attended ALSA before, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. A part of me worried that as a sixth year law student, I
was “just too old for this”. I very quickly learnt that that wasn’t the case at all, and there really was something in it for everyone. There were competitions of all kinds at the conference, which in my mind were either a race to the top (such as being
crowned an Australian champion of a mooting or skills
ALSA is a week-long law conference run by students
competition), or a race to the bottom (such as the
for students. The week is jam packed with events,
“Conference Cup” challenge, which required participants
ranging from your classic black tie ball (complete with
to take part in a number of dares throughout the week).
a gourmet meal, dance floor and an overflowing
The socials line up catered to the classy, the chilled out,
service of alcoholic beverages) to speaker’s forums
and those who are just plain wild.
and legal skills workshops run by both public interest
There were a number of highlights for me at ALSA. The
and commercial legal organisations. All law students
first would have to be getting to the semi-finals of the
can attend the conference, usually as either general
ALSA Client Interviewing Competition, and watching our
delegates or competitors.
fellow UNSW Championship Mooters (my wonderful
roommates for the week!) make the semi-finals as well.
The UNSW ALSA contingent dinners (particularly Mexican night) were also a wonderful bonding experience. Spending time
with the New Zealand contingent was also incredibly fun – they by far had the best room parties, funkiest dance moves and
had a special talent for acing competitions whilst hungover.
All in all, ALSA was a fantastic week of my break well spent. If you’ve never been before, I highly recommend that you pencil
it into your calendars for next year!
Ashna Taneja, 6th Year Economics(Hons)/Law
We encourage all of our students
to get involved in ALSA!
Check out their website and their
Facebook page and stay tuned for
news about the 2015 ALSA
Conference which will be set in
Sydney!
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