Singapore, 7 January 2015 – Advancing through five gruelling rounds of competition, duo Mr Raeza Khaled Salem Ibrahim, 28, and Ms Sadhana Devi D/O Daevnrd Rai, 27, from Drew & Napier LLC B beat 54 lawyers from 27 law firms in the final to emerge this year’s champions of the ECC-SAL International Mooting Competition. Since its inception in 2012, this is the first year the ECC-SAL Mooting Competition is opened to young advocates in the Asia-Pacific region.

The winning team was offered an all-expenses paid two-week internship at Essex Court Chambers in London, one of the leading commercial sets of barristers’ chambers in England.

Mr Raeza said “We were pleasantly surprised by this win as the competition was of a really high standard. We came up against some truly exceptional local and overseas teams. Overall it was a great experience and we are excited to spend two weeks at Essex Court Chambers in London.”

This year saw young advocates from Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore tackling a moot problem based on a contract law dispute that is governed by English law. Different issues were drawn from the same underlying moot problem throughout the competition.

The judging panel comprising The Honourable Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy, Roderick Cordara QC of Essex Court Chambers and Gourab Banerji SA, a former Additional Solicitor- General of India and overseas associate at Essex Court Chambers, selected the winners based on four criteria: content, strategy, ability to respond and style. Emphasis was placed on their insight and analysis of the problem, their ability to rebut their opponent’s arguments, their marshalling of legal arguments, team work and oral advocacy skills.

Participants had to be lawyers or legal service officers in Singapore who have been qualified for practice no more than three years as at 1 January 2015.

Mr Ng Jern-Fei, Essex Court Chambers, co-organiser of the competition, said “Competition standards were raised this year as it is the first year we opened this competition to participants from other countries in Asia-Pacific. Next year, we hope to see a greater spectrum of international participants.”

The prize for Best Speaker in the competition went to Jules Moxon of Allens in Australia, whilst the prize for the best written submissions was awarded to a team of Justices’ Law Clerks, Ramasamy s/o Nachiappan and Devathas Satianathan.

About the ECC-SAL Mooting Competition 2015
The ECC-SAL International Mooting Competition 2015 is co-organised by the members of Essex Court Chambers and the Singapore Academy of Law and is open to lawyers and legal service officers who have been qualified for practice for no more than three years as of 1 January 2015. Since its inception in 2012, this is the first year the contest is opened to young advocates internationally. Participants this year come from Australia (2 teams), Brunei (1 team), Hong Kong (2 teams), Malaysia (3 teams) and Singapore (20 teams).

About Singapore Academy of Law
The Singapore Academy of Law (the “Academy”) is the promotion and development agency for Singapore’s legal industry. Our vision is to make Singapore the legal hub of Asia.

We aim to drive legal excellence through developing thought leadership, world class infrastructure and legal solutions. We do this by building up the intellectual capital of the legal profession by enhancing legal knowledge, raising the international profile of Singapore law, promoting Singapore as a centre for dispute resolution and improving the efficiency of legal practice through the use of technology.

As a body established by statute, the Academy also undertakes statutory functions such as stakeholding services and the appointment of Senior Counsel, Commissioners of Oath and Notaries Public.

The Academy is headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. We have over 10,000 members comprising members of the Bench, the Bar, Legal Service Officers, corporate counsel, legal academics and foreign lawyers.

More information can be found at www.sal.org.sg.