A team from Meredith Connell has won the Young Resource Management Law Association (RMLA) 2015 Moot Competition.
Held at the Auckland Environment Court on 16 November 2015, the Meredith Connell team of Anna McConachy and Alice Balme won the final from Rowan Ashton (Stuart Ryan) and Alex Devine (Ellis Gould) to take the Judge Bollard Memorial Trophy.
Judge Newhook presided over the final. He said the decision had been difficult as both parties delivered a flawless presentation of the facts with persuasively developed arguments.
"The standard of mooting this year was extremely high, and marking the two finalist teams on a competitive basis to arrive at a result was pleasurably difficult," Judge Newhook said.
Seven participating teams competed for the title over a series of four mooting dates from 8 October to 16 November.
This year's participants were: Rowan Ashton (Stuart Ryan), Alex Devine (Ellis Gould), Rachel Ward (Brookfields), Mianette Broekman (Brookfields), Alice Balme (Meredith Connell), Anna McConachy (Meredith Connell), Heather Philip (BerrySimons), Kate Mulcahy (BerrySimons), Drew Stewart (Minter Ellison Rudd Watts), Luke Cutfield (Auckland Council), Alex Godinet (Holland Beckett), Dharmen Prasad (Holland Beckett), Will Rutherford (Russell McVeagh), George Willis (Russell McVeagh).
Claire Kirman, Marija Batistich and James Hassall were judges for the first round, with Russell Bartlett QC and Derek Nolan presiding over the second round.