The Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) enjoys close links with those in the industry, including some of the top shipping law firms in the world. This year the Institute had the privilege of hosting the final of the Shipping & Trade LLM Moot Competition at the London office of Kennedys.
In a fantastic end to an intense mooting season, IISTL’s top eight LLM mooters were provided with the opportunity to show off their presentation and legal reasoning skills to some of the very best in the business. The IISTL was honoured to have the following judges; Kishore Sharma (36 Group), Michael Biltoo (Partner, Kennedys) and Ingrid Hu (Associate, Kennedys), who unanimously sided with the Claimant Team in their final decision.
The IISTL would like to offer sincere congratulations to the winners, Mr Cesar Peniche-Luna (Speaker), Ms Laura Bosco-Carton (Speaker), Ms Iliana Fountoglu (Researcher) and Mr Jiale Lin (Researcher). Their dedication, creative legal arguments and fantastic teamwork impressed everyone in attendance.
The moot question itself was particularly complex in nature, covering some of the specialised commercial subjects that Swansea LLM students have been studying throughout their degree, and thus offering them the chance to put what they’ve been learning into practice.
The initial rounds were held earlier in the year, with over fifteen teams competing for the top eight places in the final at Kennedys. Competition was fierce and overall, the calibre was very high. This was especially the case in regard to the runners up; Mr Joshua Benn (Speaker), Ms Nour Er (Speaker), Ms Rawan Albarkri (Researcher) and Mr Akash Dubey (Researcher), who provided the winners with rigorous opposition.
The IISTL were also able to celebrate the winners for the Best Skeleton (Initial Rounds); Ms Winnie Kamau and Mr Christian Scharmer.
Congratulations were offered by all in the audience, who were made up of other Shipping & Trade LLM students, including mooters who took part in the initial rounds of the competition, and staff members Professors Simon Baughen and George Leloudas.
Dr Kurtz-Shefford, Director of Shipping & Trade Law mooting, said the following:
“Both teams did a great job this year. The competition was intense, but they put on a great show and never gave up – they did their university proud. We’re particularly grateful to Kennedys for offering our students such a fantastic experience and contributing to their professional legal development.”