Congratulations to Philippa Okoli for winning Kent Law School’s first internal Family Law Advocacy Competition. The idea was the brainchild of KLS alumni and barrister at Becket Chambers, John Nee.
Around twenty undergraduate law students entered and took part in two oral rounds as well as submitting written pieces of work. Unlike mooting, the exercises given to students were first instance advocacy scenarios before barristers pretending to be District Judges. Realistically, students were given their instructions extremely late with only a couple of days’ notice. John Nee said, ‘Exposure to case pressure is absolutely essential to all law students. Preparing and presenting a case before real barristers not only sharpens the tools that students are developing in their studies but helps them see whether they enjoy doing what a barrister does.’
Following the two oral rounds, the two highest scoring students went head-to-head before a panel of four barrister judges. Victoria Bradshaw faced Philippa Okoli, but after the well-argued submissions, it was Philippa who won a week’s mini pupillage, £250, a one-to-one session with a barrister and a barrister’s clerk as well as an advocacy book. The Judges had commented that both students had performed brilliantly and that either could have been in a real court making those submissions competently.
John Nee said, ‘A law student may be wrestling with what they want from their working life. From a future career perspective, to be able to tell a pupillage interviewer that “I KNOW I enjoy advocacy because I have experience” is priceless. Insight into the struggles of a case can be the difference in success or failure at interview’.
Darren Weir, Kent Law School’s Director of Lawyering Skills, said, ‘Experiences like these are indeed priceless and we encourage all our undergraduates to take part in these internal competitions to make them more employable. Having great academic credentials is only ever part of the package. Employers are looking for far more than that these days. We are very fortunate to have great partners, like Becket Chambers, to support our students.’
The Family Law Advocacy Competition is just one internal competition running this academic year. Later in the Spring term we will have the results of our Civil Advocacy, Criminal Advocacy, and our internal mooting programme to report on. All these opportunities are provided as part of the co-curricular lawyering skills programme at Kent Law School.