Experts & Views
Just the phrase will make heads turn in a law school. Anyone and everyone who moots is to be treated like a superstar. It fascinates first years. No doubt. When I started off with law school, I also looked up to mooters as Demi-Gods. Suddenly towards the end of the first year, I asked myself a question, so what’s so great about mooting? I mean, it’s just another competition like a debate or a MUN. So I started thinking on these lines: Mooting helps if you are planning on litigating The above statement is something mooters have come up with to lure people to moot. :D On a more serious note, Mooting is something which is purely utopian. In the real court room, all this doesn’t happen. It is never so (organized), you don’t have to give the judge SO much respect. Judges don’t ask you definitions or question you on why is the formatting improper. Real court room is a lot more casual than a moot. Litigation requires a lot more than just mooting experience. [My future blogpost topic]. Mooting helps in finding a job Okay, this is a bit two sided. I know that sometimes it does but the way in which it helps is what most people don’t understand. People think that just by participating in a moot and writing it down in your resume, you have a better chance of landing a job. False. It takes more than that, a lot more. First, just participating doesn’t count as anything. You have to win it, or atleast be a finalist or get an honourable mention. If none of that happens then you are just another person for the recruiters. I guess it is safe to say that with so many moots coming up, almost everyone will moot once in five years, even if it is for a so called ‘third tier’ moot. Winning is all that counts. Even if you win a ‘third tier’ moot then it is better than just a participation in a ‘tier one’ moot. Secondly, you have to make contacts when you are out mooting. It can be with judges, with other participants and with organisers. Lawyers life is dependent on networking. [Some would call it Jugaad, it would agree completely]. So don’t just go there to stare at everything. Talk to people, meet interesting people. It’s always fun to meet new people and it is better if these new people can get you jobs/internships. :D The college can be judged by the its mooters This is one thing that I personally hate. I mean, how can you judge a college from the 3-4 students that have come for the moot? You simply cannot. It is not fair. Yet, a lot of people do it. I have heard a lot of people say,” Did you see what he/she did? I bet he/she is from ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z’ college. All their students are like this only.” My physical appearance has nothing to do with my success in mooting I have not participated in many moots much but I have been witness to a lot of them. One thing that always surprises me is why do some participants, even after not performing well, succeed. It is not completely my decision on whether they have performed well or now, I have discussed it with a lot of friends too and they agree. We they started to look for a pattern and we sure as hell found one. Physical appearance, glamour, call it whatever you want to but it is a well known fact that good looking boys/girls have it a bit easy when it comes to impressing judges in a moot. First of all when I found out about it, I was surprised. I questioned myself. It was during an intra round in college that I finally saw the theory in action. A girl was supposed to be arguing from the respondent’s side. She was looking hot! (This was the common opinion of a lot of boys that were there near the court room). She started off. She fumbled a lot. She almost stopped for more than 30 seconds on a simple question. In short, it was an average performance. We all expected her to be around rank 30 or so out of 50. Surprisingly she got a rank in the Top 10. According to a fellow student,” Looks like the judge too thought that she was hot”. This made me laugh at that moment and then think hard about it later on. I guess this one requires a lot of clarification. I am not against moots. What I don’t like is the excessive importance it is given. I have mooted once and I might just moot again. People who like mooting are not bad people. It is a choice they make and I respect that. Some of the incidents mentioned above might offend a few people. I am sorry if it does. I have no intention of doing so. I just wrote down what I had seen, heard and experienced. Point number 4 is not restricted to females only, it is gender neutral (unlike some of the moot court judges, Ha !). These are all my personal views. Difference of opinion makes life beautiful.
Moot Court
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These activities help you spend time and get some attention while in law school (who doesnt like it)--- but 10 years on it will not matter... so just chillax and catch a movie if you are in law school and reading this!
it is true that at times, especially in national moots, judging is not upto one's expectations. This is because persons who hold eminent positions, but have no knowledge of the subject of the moot, are invited to judge. But these isolated instances should not be used to mislead students, especially new entrants to law schools.
It is true that mooting is a bit over-hyped, just like cricket or football is. I agree that ranking colleges by their performance is like ranking Brazil as the most powerful country in the world based on its performance in football. But that does not mean mooting is useless.
I have attended classes and have been a part of almost every possible student activity (including writing articles) over the last four years. I think mooting has helped the most in developing my legal reasoning skills. The skills I learnt from mooting have helped me in every other thing I did, including my exams. I may not be able to recall a word from yesterday's lecture; but I still remember everything about the law points involved in my very first moot problem four years back. More importantly, I don't think anything else has given me as much satisfaction as when a the coach of a German team walked up to me and asked "What have you got against Germany that you kicked out three of our teams in two days? Are you a reincarnation of Eisenhower?"
My humble advice to those entering lawschools is, try mooting once. In fact, grab every single opportunity and take part in every single activity in your first year. After that first taste of everything decide what activities you want to retain on your plate for the subsequent years.
Your opinion on mooting is something I accept. I know that different people feel differently about things. The above post is my view.
I also agree that everyone should moot once. If you like it then continue, if you don't then stop. :)
Good post again. And i agree with u...its just overhyped.
And I know what you mean about hero worshiping mooters But I guess they are like the basketball players from school. They represent the college outside thus the attention. They are foolish if they let it go to their head though :P
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