EMAN BARE
News Writer

A University of Saskatchewan law team won the Sopinka Cup for the first time in the school’s history.

Team members Andrew Kuzma, Kayla Demars-Krentz, Jason Demers, Evan Thompson and coach Ashley Smith travelled to Ottawa March 11 to 12 to compete against other law schools in moots across the country.

Moot teams compete in moot courts, which are based around a fictional or previously decided case. Law schools use the competitions to develop advocacy skills in law students, which are not necessarily taught in the classroom.
The team spent five months preparing for the competition with the help of lawyers, judges and other students.

“Teams prepare for months for a trial that takes about three hours,” said Thompson, “so there’s a lot of pressure to perform.”

According to Thompson, they ran about 20 practice rounds — totaling approximately 60 hours — and practiced in front of experienced judges and criminal lawyers to ensure that they were well prepared.

Thompson was awarded best cross-examination and best overall advocate.

“The judges we spoke to indicated that our team was strong and that my partner Jason was in the mix for several individual awards,” he said.

The tournament had four trials, with each team competing only once. The teams at the competition had all ranked first or second in their regions, creating fierce competition among the competitors.

According to Thompson, “most moot cases are appeals, where the teams do not have witnesses or evidence, and are only arguing points of law.”

The Sopinka Cup is the only competition where the cases are moots, with examination of witnesses and evidence, similar to a real criminal case.

U of S moot teams consist of second and third year students, with first year law students participating in a moot as part of their curriculum.

The U of S College of Law does not place as much emphasis on moot as some of the other law colleges across Canada, but Thompson hopes this will change.

“We’re hoping the college will continue to support and strengthen its commitment to the competitive moots. As we’ve shown this year, our College of Law can compete with and win against the best and the brightest from across the country.”