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Mooting

The simplest way to describe a 'moot' or 'mooting' is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem. By taking part in mooting, students practise their public speaking and it is perhaps the closest experience to appearing in court that you can have while at university.

Mooting draws on a wide range of intellectual and practical skills and it can help develop your confidence in public speaking, research and advocacy. We recognise the importance of mooting in enhancing your future employability and this is reflected in the creative way that integrate mooting tasks into our courses.

Law schools vary widely in their attitude to mooting and clinical legal skills in general. Mooting now forms a compulsory part of certain undergraduate law courses, but will remain a totally voluntary student organised activity in other law schools.

There are many opportunities available in all years and if mooting is something you really enjoy, you can take a dedicated mooting module in the final year, which enables you to develop your skills to an impressive standard.

Why Moot?

Ian Hutton Moot

As many first year law students will be aware, the legal profession (be it as a barrister or as a solicitor) is an increasingly difficult one to enter. Application forms for legal professional courses, solicitors' firms and barristers' chambers often demand that a candidate has advocacy or mooting experience while at university.

Mooting is an exercise which will enhance your overall understanding and knowledge of particular areas of law and also enhance overall confidence in public speaking, general research, and presentation skills.

Mooting Opportunities

At NLS, students can actively participate in mooting beyond their compulsory modules. The Mooter’s Guild offers an opportunity for all law students to engage in competitions, skills sessions, and the chance to build public speaking and confidence skills. Student members have access to plenty of opportunities including participation in prestigious national and international competitions that are invaluable for development.

We proudly compete in the Michael Corkery QC Moot, in which we have established a strong track record, and the National Law Student Triathlon. This is alongside many other national competitions.

For the 2024/25 academic year, we are excited to be participating in the international Sports Arbitration Moot Competition. Additionally, students can further develop their skills through practice sessions and our internal mooting competitions which are open to all.

Mooting experience can benefit every student whether or not they plan to follow a traditional legal career path upon graduation.

Assessment by moot

Some undergraduate module assessment is partly by moot. This encourages the students to think like true lawyers. Students gain confidence mooting in front of their colleagues and develop their understanding of topics through questioning from their judge.

Unique mooting module for final year LLB students

Advocacy

We believe we are the only institution in the sector to provide a final year module entirely focussed on mooting for our LLB students. Competition to get into the module is fierce with only the best students in the year being selected. The module is intellectually rigorous, as students are required to participate in moots against each other regularly on a variety of legal areas with only a short period in which to prepare. Moots are performed both in class and before the whole Law School.

Facilities

Courtroom

We have invested in some outstanding facilities which means you will be able to practice in an authentic environment. We have three wood-panelled courtrooms, one with a civil court set up and two with a full criminal court set up. All courtrooms are complete with judge's bench, dock, witness stand and seating for the jury, barristers, solicitors , press and the public.