23 October 2012

The University of Queensland School of Law has won its fourth mooting title in 2012 after winning the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) National Mooting Competition.

This is UQ’s third win in the national competition in five years.

The winning team comprised of UQ law students Aanand Jayachandran and Heath Manning as advocates and Portia Tyle as solicitor.

They won a fiercely fought moot against the University of Melbourne, which was adjudicated by the President of the Tribunal, the Honourable Duncan Kerr SC Chev LH, along with Deputy President J.W. Constance and Senior Member E. Fice.

They overcame adversity after one of the team was taken ill during the course of making submissions.

After a brief adjournment Mr Manning recovered to complete his submissions.

Mr Jayachandran was also awarded the prize for best speaker in the final.

The teams' mooting coach, Senior Lecturer Dr Peter Billings, said the students were a credit to the Law School.

“I am delighted to see the student’s considerable efforts rewarded with the title,” Dr Billings said.

The annual AAT mooting competition provides an opportunity for students to learn more about administrative law and merits review, and enables them to develop their advocacy skills.

It consists of five knockout rounds at state/territory and national level.

Each moot takes the form of an abridged Tribunal hearing and features scenarios drawn from a variety of administrative law areas, including immigration and citizenship, social security, taxation, veterans' affairs and workers' compensation.

It is held over three months between August and October.

Dr Billings also acknowledged the support of the UQ TC Beirne School of Law Dean Professor Gerard Carney, Associate Professor Anthony Cassimatis and Narelle Bedford for assisting the winning team.

He also thanked Mr Peter Jensen, Hannah McConnachie (DLA Piper) and Abraham O’Neil (AAT Moot Champion 2011) for their help in preparing the three teams who were entered into the competition.

Media: Dr Peter Billings 07 3365 7176, p.billings@law.uq.edu.au