The Faculty’s moot teams began their competitions in February and have amassed some stellar results thus far, with more competitions to come through the end of March
Editors’ note: Every effort is made to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of the moot results below. Photos and additional notes/special thanks are included in instances where the editors of Focus online have received such information, usually from participants themselves. Further updates and photos can be sent to lysanne.larose@mcgill.ca.
February
Coupe Guy-Guérin (Finale québécoise du concours Sopinka)
 The Guy-Guérin Moot team: Marie-Ève Lavoie and Alexander Steinhouse (in centre) with their coach and supporters. |
 The Mignault Moot team: Michael Shortt, Marie-Andrée Plante, coach Prof. P.-G. Jobin, Émilie Conway & Marc-James Tacheji. |
 The Laskin Moot team in fine spirit: Charif El-Khouri, Priyanka Timblo, Raphaël Girard, Megan Lee, & coach Anne Merminod. |
 The Wilson Moot team: Arthur Ayers, Anna Piekarzewski, Malcolm Lavoie & Silvia Dimitrova. |
 The Kawaskimhon Moot team: coach Zachary Davis with students Jessica Labranche-Hamelin and David Newstone. |
 The 2012 Jessup team: Julien Faubert-Léger, Louis Fouquet, Adela Maciejewski Scheer, Caylee Hong, and Me Cara Cameron. |
 During the Jessup Canada Awards Banquet, Angus Rennie (McGill Jessup team 2009) and Bryana Jensen (McGill Jessup team 2010) gave a lovely memorial tribute to Alex Dodger. They also presented an award, which McGill donated, to the top female oralist in Alex’s memory. |
- Results: First-place team prize
- Team members: Marie-Ève Lavoie and Alexander Steinhouse
- Coach: Me. Julio Péris
Concours de plaidoirie Pierre-Basile-Mignault
- Prix de la meilleure équipe : McGill
- Prix du meilleur mémoire : ex aequo Michael Shortt et Marc-James Tacheji pour l’appelant et Marie-Andrée Plante et Émilie Conway pour l’intimé
- Prix du meilleur tandem de plaideurs: Émilie Conway et Marie-Andrée Plante
- Prix du 2e meilleur tandem de plaideurs: Michael Shortt et Marc-James Tacheji
- Prix du meilleur plaideur : ex aequo Marc-James Tacheji et Émilie Conway
- Prix du 3e meilleur plaideur : Michael Shortt
- Équipe: Emilie Conway, Marie-Andrée Plante, Michael Shortt, Marc James Tacheji
- Conseiller: Professeur Pierre-Gabriel Jobin
The Bora Laskin Moot
- Best team award (overall standings): third place
- Best factum: first place
- Best pairs (Megan Lee and Priyanka Timblo): second place
- Team members: Charif El-Khouri, Raphaël Girard, Megan Lee, Priyanka Timblo
- Coaches: Mes Mark Phillips and Anne Merminod
The Wilson Moot
- Final moot results: second place
- Team members: Arthur Ayers, Anna Piekarzewski, Malcolm Lavoie and Silvia Dimitrova
- Coach: Me. Azim Hussain
March
The Davies Corporate/Securities Law Moot
- Results: Third place
- Team members: Michael Finley, Henry Ngan, Adam Plotkin, Jagtaran Singh
- Coach: Me. Eric Mendelsohn
The Kawaskhimon Aboriginal Rights Moot
- Team members: Jessica Labranche-Hamelin and David Newstone
- Coaches: Kirsten Anker and Zachary Davis
The Jessup Moot (Canadian Division)
- First place memorials (overall)
- First place respondent memorial
- Team members: Julien Faubert-Léger, Louis Fouquet, Caylee Hong, Adela Maciejewski Scheer
- Coaches: Professor Payam Akhavan and Me. Cara Cameron
The Sopinka Cup
- Team members: Marie-Ève Lavoie and Alexander Steinhouse
- Coach: Me. Julio Péris
Special notes and thanks
Coupe Guy-Guérin (Finale québécoise du concours Sopinka)
From team member Alexander Steinhouse:
“Marie-Ève and I won the Guy Guérin Cup, a trial advocacy competition, held on Februrary 10th, 2012. This year’s problem was an unlawful act manslaughter, and we were the Crown Prosecutors. I also picked up a prize for best examination in chief.
You can find more details in the following Droit Inc. article: http://www.droit-inc.com/article7105&show_comzone=y.
As winners, we will be heading to Ottawa March 16 and 17 for the Sopinka Cup (where we will be the Defence).
We really must stress how grateful we are for all the help provided by our friends, family, and the many legal practitioners and judges. Most importantly, we would like to thank our coach, Julio Peris, who has unfailingly been there for us since the beginning — we really could not have done it without him.”
Update, March 27: coach Julio Perris reports that the McGill team competed against the Sopinka winning team from the University of Saskatchewan; while they came home empty-handed, “Marie-Eve and Alexander did an excellent job and argued the case for the defense like seasoned lawyers. They cross-examined and argued as advocates well beyond their years of experience. ” The team also offers its gratitude to the crown prosecutors and defense lawyers that donated their time and their sincere thanks to the Honourable Allan R. Hilton for his time and insightful comments.
Concours de plaidoirie Pierre-Basile-Mignault
Rapport de Pierre-Gabriel Jobin, Titulaire émérite de la Chaire Wainwright en droit civil et conseiller de l’équipe:
“Toutes les facultés du Québec et celle d’Ottawa y étaient représentées. Les plaideurs de McGill ont tous été excellents. Ils ont rafflé tous les premiers prix et davantage!
Fait rare dans l’histoire du Mignault, la ronde finale opposait McGill c. … McGill, i.e. les deux tandems de notre faculté (l’appelant et l’intimé). Fait encore plus rare, la finale était disputée à la Cour fédérale dans l’immeuble de la Cour suprême du Canada. Le banquet qui suivit a été servi dans le grand hall du magnifique édifice Cormier – inoubliable!
La juge Marie Deschamps, de la Cour suprême, présidait. Elle était entourée des juges Louise Mailhot, juge retraitée de la Cour d’appel du Québec, et du juge Simon Noël de la Cour fédérale.
Plusieurs personnes-ressources ont participé généreusement à la préparation de notre équipe. Sans pouvoir toutes les nommer, je tiens à souligner la contribution du juge Yves-Marie-Morissette, de la professeure Yaëll Emerich, des très dévoués avocats de McCarthy Tétrault, Mes Philippe Dufort-Langlois, Stéphane Tremblay, Geneviève Bertrand et Marie-Ève Bélanger, ainsi que l’aide soutenue de trois membres de l’équipe McGill dans le Mignault de l’an dernier, Vincent Ranger, Émilie Forgues-Bundock et Hugues Doré-Bergeron.
Émilie Conway, Marie-André Plante, Michael Shortt et Marc-James Tacheji, font grand honneur à notre faculté.”
The Bora Laskin Moot
From team member Raphaël Girard:
“L’édition 2012 du Laskin s’est tenue du 16 au 18 février 2012 à Moncton, au Nouveau-Brunswick. La question de cette année portait sur le droit administratif et le droit de l’immigration et des réfugiés.
L’équipe de McGill, composée de Priyanka Timblo, Megan Lee, Charif El-Khouri et Raphaël Girard s’est vue décerner trois prix, soit le prix du meilleur mémoire, le prix de la troisième meilleure équipe au classement final (sur 19 facultés représentées), ainsi que le prix du deuxième meilleur tandem de plaideurs (Priyanka Timblo et Megan Lee).
L’équipe était dirigée par deux avocats de Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) et deux anciens de McGill, soit Me Mark Phillips, pour la rédaction du mémoire et la préparation, et par Me Anne Merminod, qui s’est déplacée à Moncton pour la ronde des plaidoiries. Me Patrick Plante a également contribué aux succès de l’équipe en offrant de précieux conseils tout au long de la période de préparation.
Nous avons vraiment adoré l’expérience et la recommandons à toute personne intéressée à participer à un concours de plaidoirie.”
The Wilson Moot
From team member Arthur Ayers:
“On behalf of our team, I wanted to share with you our pride in placing second in the Wilson Moot against a formidable University of Toronto team. As we did not receive individual awards (for the factums or oral pleadings), our overall placing indicates we were truly strong as a team. It was an honour to be supported [by Me. Azim Hussain], to represent McGill and to learn so much in the process.”
The Jessup Moot
From team member Adela Maciejewski Scheer:
“On behalf of the Jessup team, I’m very happy to report that we were awarded the prizes for First Place Memorials (Overall) as well as for First Place Respondent Memorial. Our memorials will go on to compete in the international memorial competition (Hardy C. Dillard Competition). While we didn’t qualify to plead at the international rounds, we had some very close and exciting preliminary rounds against top teams. I think I can say for all of us that participating in the Jessup was one of the defining experiences of law school. We learned a tremendous amount from our coaches, practice round judges and from one another, and will look back very fondly on the experience.
We would like to extend our thanks to our coach Me. Cara Cameron, faculty advisor Professor Payam Akhavan and to all the practice round judges who patiently listened to our stories about fictional countries. Special thanks to Justice Carol Cohen, Isavella Vasilogeorgi, and Kuzi Charamba.”