Waikato law students win Australian competition

Hamilton, 18 July, 2016

Waikato law students win Australian competition

A team of law students from the University of Waikato has secured victory over the University of Canterbury, winning the Australian national negotiation competition in Hobart on 8 July.

The winning team was made up of Zachary Katene, studying a Bachelor of Laws with honours and Bachelor of Management Studies with honours, and Jarom Murphy, in the final year of his law degree. The former Church College students took on 28 teams and say the competition was an amazing experience.

“In our negotiation classes at Waikato, we were taught to always take a collaborative approach and that was a key part of our strategy,” Jarom says.

Waikato University’s Faculty of Law fielded three teams in the largest law conference in Australia - the annual July Australian Law Students’ Association (ALSA) conference - attended by more than 500 students from Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

The conference hosts the brightest students; the winners of each law school’s internal competitions as they compete in the national finals of six legal competitions including the championship moot, international humanitarian law moot, negotiation, witness examination, client interview and the paper presentation competition.

Each of the ALSA competitions have three preliminary rounds and a finals series commencing with Quarter-Finals.

“The negotiation competition really helped us to develop valuable skills such as thinking on our feet and asking our clients effective questions," Jarom says.

“We’re extremely grateful to have the funding and support from the law Faculty that has enabled us the opportunity to take part in the Australian negotiation competition.”

Waikato law students Amelia Watson and Jesse Tizard were runners-up in the ALSA mooting competition at the conference.

Second-year law students Emma Speakman and Talia Powell also finished eighth out of more than 30 teams who entered the client interviewing competition.

Dean of Law Associate Professor Wayne Rumbles and Law Chairperson Cheryl Green congratulated the Waikato University law teams. The conference featured the Australian Legal Education Forums, speakers’ forums, skills workshops and career forums.

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