A team of two Canadian students from Kent Law School emerged victorious in the final of the third annual MacKay Cup, a prestigious national mooting competition held at Canada House in London last week.
Senior Status students Maariyah Baig and Keegan Adsett-Bowrin were named as the winners of the competition, beating a team from the University of Sussex in a rematch of the 2015 final. Maariyah and Keegan advanced to the final from preliminary rounds of the competition held at Gray’s Inn in April, which saw teams from law schools across the UK engage in competitive moots based upon Canadian Law.
The MacKay Cup was launched in 2014 by the University of Leicester, with the support of Canada’s then Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Honourable Peter MacKay. It enables Canadian students who are studying in the UK to moot in Canadian law, with the final of the competition held at Canada House in London. The Honourable Peter MacKay remains an active supporter, and presented the trophy to Maariyah and Keegan after their victory last Friday.
Per Laleng, Senior Lecturer and Director of Mooting at Kent Law School, praised the commitment and performance of Maariyah and Keegan: “I am immensely proud and impressed by Maariyah and Keegan’s achievement. Over the Easter break they worked very hard in preparation for the competition and successfully juggled this with revision for their upcoming exams. This success is especially awesome given that both students are only in the first year of their senior status programme. I am looking forward to seeing them both moot again next year.”
Kent’s Deputy Director of Mooting, Lecturer Johanne Thompson, accompanied the team to Canada House: “The advocacy and ability to think on their feet from both Keegan and Maariyah was outstanding. Judicial intervention was fierce from all judges but both students remained cool, calm and gave full measured answers.”
The win was the second mooting success of the year for Maariyah: in March, she was named best mooter of the annual Justin Yuen Canadian Law Moot, in which she competed alongside senior status student Sam Paulin. Keegan also participated in the Yuen moot, alongside fellow first year senior status student Shinpé Saito.
Organised by the Canadian Law Society at Kent (with support from the Law School), the Yuen moot saw Justin Yuen, Kent alumnus and Toronto-based criminal lawyer, return to the University to co-judge the moot he now sponsors. During his visit, Justin also gave a talk to current students, sharing his experiences of returning to Canada to qualify and practice.
The Yuen moot was preceded by the third annual Kent Canadian Law Negotiation competition, which saw Maariyah and Sam successfully navigate their way to finish ahead of the team of Samantha Gravelle and Sarah Wege.
Kent Law School has a thriving Canadian student community and a growing network of alumni who have returned to Canada after graduation to qualify and practice. With around 70 Canadian students, the School has one of the largest Canadian law student communities in the UK.