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In only its second year of participating, The University of Western Australia's Kirby Moot team has won the national finals.

UWA Law students Sam Pack, Chris Burch, Yvonne Yap and Ciara O'Loughlin took out the 2014 Kirby Moot, the premier national mooting competition in contract law for universities around Australia.

The competition fielded 26 teams from 17 universities, with students having to prepare two written memorandums (one for the claimant and one for the respondent).

The competition was run in Melbourne over four days, with the UWA team competing against four teams and progressing to the final knockout rounds.

UWA Law School lecturer and team coach, Dr Renae Barker, travelled with the students and is an advocate of mooting for law students.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for students to put their law studies into practice and to develop their legal reasoning and oral advocacy skills," she said.

The grand final against Bond University was a tight competition with Ciara O'Loughlin and Sam Pack winning by one point.  Sam Pack was also awarded the prize for the best speaker in the grand final (jointly with one of the speakers from Bond) and best speaker in the final rounds.

Photo caption (left to right): Kirby Moot winners Sam Pack, Ciara O'Loughlin, moot judge Simon E. Marks QC, Chris Burch and Yvonne Yap at the awards dinner.

Media references

Marie Knights (Marketing Officer, UWA Faculty of Law)  (+61 8) 6488 1375
Tony Malkovic (UWA Media Office)  (+61 8) 6488 3229 / (+61 4) 11 103 398