Manchester Law School team are crowned World Champions Duo triumph at Client Interviewing tournament

  • 12/05/2015

mmu

A TEAM from Manchester Law School are the new world champions in client interviewing after triumphing at the international tournament.

Students Philippa Byrne and Claire Coleman are officially the best in the world after beating 19 teams from universities across the globe at the world championships.

The aspiring barristers study on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) and took on the tournament to develop their interviewing technique through the mock client-lawyer scenarios.

They fended off competition from 36 institutions to take the England and Wales title and earned a place at the ICCC Brown-Moston Client Interviewing final at the University of Nebraska, USA.

Winning formula

Philippa and Claire faced several rounds of judging over four days on small business rules and regulations.

Claire said: �It was an intense tournament but well worth the effort and a fantastic feeling when they announced us as winners.

�Very quickly Philippa and I found the winning formula during the questioning and with feedback from judges we quickly absorbed it into our interviews.

�This is something the University teaches us, enabling us to assimilate large amounts of information and compose an appropriate response.�

Soft skills

Philippa, who is due to start a pupillage with Nine St John Street Chambers in Manchester, added: �It�s nice to bring back the trophy and it is recognition for the University that the skills we�ve have been developing have the desired effect.�

Students are assessed according to set criteria that focuses on interpersonal skills and how they handle legal problems. The goal is to help develop soft skills and to aid high level practice.

The pair competed through several rounds behind closed doors before the final in front of an audience of fellow competitors.

A coach from MLS was on hand during the trip to help the team prepare for the international final, which will be hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University next year.

Training

Senior Lecturer Phil Rouse, leader of conference skills on the BPTC course, said: �Congratulations to the hugely talented Claire and Philippa who thoroughly deserve both the national and international client interviewing titles.

�They are a credit to themselves and to Manchester Law School where we focus on training students through our Conference Skills course to become successful client interviewers like this and prepare them for the rigours of practice and life as a barrister.�

To find out more please�visit�http://www.law.mmu.ac.uk/�and�http://www.brownmosten.com/

client interviewing mmu news 12.05.2015