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Game, set and moot
WHEN NOT PUTTING IN THE HOURS AS AN EMPLOYMENT AND IR LAWYER, ANGUS MACINNIS CAN BE FOUND SCHOOLING MOOTING TEAMS IN THE NOBLE ART OF ARGUMENT
Once they have their degrees, many lawyers are quite happy to put law school behind them. Angus Macinnis, a senior associate in the Sydney office of Dibbs Abbott Stillman, is not one of them.
Macinnis works as a coach with some of the university mooting teams from his alma mater, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).
As with any outside-work commitment, some juggling is required, and he says he has to balance legal practice with time devoted to teaching (which has included “dealing with the terrible chore” of being sent to Vienna for an international mooting competition).
Macinnis took part in several mooting competitions as a student, and in about 2000, a few new moots were being set up in various areas of law and coaches were needed for a new wave of budding competitors.
The first one he took on was the International Maritime Arbitration Law Moot – despite his claim that the only thing he knew about maritime law at that point was that the port side of a vessel is indicated by a red light and the starboard side by a green one.
Macinnis did, however, know about mooting and about structuring arguments, and so he put that to work and began boning up on bills of lading and charter parties.
That work finally paid off when the UTS team he had coached won the International Maritime Arbitration Law Moot in 2004. Subsequently, Macinnis secured coaching roles in the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Competition; the Sir Harry Gibbs National Mooting Competition (in which he coached the champion UTS teams in 2004 and 2005); and this year, the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, which is held annually in Vienna.
In addition to developing the oral arguments, each team has to research, write and submit lengthy submissions (usually 30-40 pages in length for each side of the moot problem) and has to go through a program of practice moots before each competition starts.
“The Vis Moot this year was fantastic,” Macinnis says. “I had a great team who put in an awesome effort – the UTS team was ranked equal ninth out of 158 participants – and I got to travel to Vienna in the springtime. That was pretty tough to take, but sometimes a tradesman has to be prepared to go where the work is!”
In his ‘day job’ at Dibbs Abbott Stillman, Macinnis focuses primarily on industrial relations and employment law. However, as a coach, he has prepared mooting teams for competitions in an eclectic range of areas of law, including maritime law, international sale of goods law, constitutional law and public international law.
“I’ve always been interested in areas of law beyond those which make up my specialisation,” he says. “Coaching the Gibbs team, for example, which is always on constitutional law, has kept me in touch with that area. That has been very useful this year in light of the WorkChoices challenge in the High Court.”
Macinnis says he is fortunate that his firm recognises the benefit of his putting in the time in his role with UTS.
“It means that students see someone who works in a firm which allows them to put a face to that firm. From a practical perspective, the support that the firm gives me to allow me to balance coaching with my practice is a much better demonstration of the firm’s commitment to work/life balance than a mere mission statement in a brochure.
“And equally, the skills that are needed to be a good mooter, like hard work, teamwork, and passion for what you do, are all skills that good lawyers need. So I get to do a bit of talent spotting for the firm along the way.”
He hopes the future will bring further successes, but Macinnis notes that it’s a tough, competitive world out there. “The thing about mooting competitions is that there are always plenty of good teams,” he says.
“To win, you need to be very good but also a bit lucky. UTS tends to produce students who make very good mooters, and mooting gets tremendous support from the UTS Faculty of Law. But it’s the hard work of the students themselves that determines whether we come home with the silverware. Really, my role just involves lapping up the adulation when things go well.”
“And,” he adds, tongue in cheek, “disclaiming all responsibility when they don’t.”
30-Jun-2006
Related Tags
Dibbs Abbott Stillman , Out of Practice , arbitration law , ir lawyer , vienna
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