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Faculty of Law Student and Alumni Successes

05 February 2025
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Student Successes

 

Moot Finals

The moot final was held on 18 May 2024, congratulations to Louie Howell, Harry Waddington, Josh Foster-Pearcy and Marize Ras for an exceptional performance all round. The moot concerned implied terms and unjust enrichment, and all students demonstrated clear arguments and robust responses to some curly questions from the judges. Marize Ras won the “Blue” Cup for the Best First-Time Mooter and Josh Foster-Pearcy won the Judges Cup for the Best Overall Mooter. Marize Ras and Josh Foster-Pearcy won the Colin Fife Memorial Prize, established to enhance the development of advocacy skills by law students. The Bench comprised Mr John Matthews (Associate Judge of the High Court) (retired); Graeme Riach (President of the Canterbury/Westland Branch of the NZLS), Stephen Trevalla (Partner, Bell Gully) and our own Professor Liz Macpherson. Mr Matthews had some wise words for the mooters when dealing with the Bench – respectful, intellectual equality. Huge thanks to Jono and the competition officers at LawSoc for doing such a great job in organising the final and all the other associated competitions.

In the Junior Moot Final, Louie Howell, Ally Basa, Hugo Lethbridge and Christian King did a fabulous job arguing about remoteness of damage and whether exemplary damages are available in contract law. Louie Howell as declared the winner of the Junior Moot on the night. Amy Keir (Barrister) was the presiding judge and was joined on the Bench by Taylor Wood from Bell Gully (who also set the problem), and our own Matt Barber. Thanks to Bell Gully for their support of the moot and the well-earned kai afterwards.

On 19 July 2024  the Te Pūtāiki Kaupapa Māori Moot regional competition washeld in the Māori Land Court, judged by Judge Hix and Judge Milroy. With 5 tauira competing (pictured left below), four of which had never mooted before, including the winner, Isabelle Smith. Isabelle will go on to moot at Te Hunga Roia. Keri and Dee also attended the Tūmatakahuki wānanga in Auckland in the weekend, which was a wānanga of all the heads of the Māori Law Students Associations.

Te Pūtāiki sent 14 tauira to the Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa Hui-ā- Tau in Whakatāne from September 4th to 8th. It was an awesome experience, with our rōpū connecting with other tauira, judges, and legal practitioners. Isabella Smith and Rireana Laauli did us proud, competing with mana in the Kaupapa Māori Moot Final and Negotiation Final respectively. We teamed up with Te Rōpū Whai Pūtake for Te Matature, the kapa haka competition and placed third! The highlight for many was hearing kōrero from Justice Whata, Justice Joe, and the legendary Tame Iti. All in all, it was an amazing week of learning, competing, and celebrating our reo and tikanga in the legal world.

 

Student Awards and Scholarships

Congratulations to Rita Sami has been awarded a UC Sustainable Development Goals PhD Scholarship to work on Resilient and equitable emergency response for employed women. She will be supervised by Annick Masselot and Liz Macpherson (and probably Natalie Baird).

Nellie Evison has been awarded a $6000 summer scholarship from Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE UC 2023 Summer Student Strategic Funding Round. John and Toni will supervise Nellie. Nellie will be working on a research project entitled “Health and Safety during Response and Recovery Operations: A New Zealand Case Study” looking at the regulatory system governing the health and safety of workers who are required to work in response and recovery following an earthquake or other disaster. The aim is to map the gaps in the system and provide recommendations about the legal obligations of PCBUs for their workers post-disaster.

Natalie Baird’s PhD student Nicola Leete (also supervised by David Small in Education) was awarded the annual Dr Ann Shorten Doctoral Award for the best thesis in education law research at the ANZELA (Australia and New Zealand Education Law Association) Conference earlier this week. Congratulations Nicola and Natalie!

 

Te Pūtāiki 30th Celebration

Te Pūtāiki 30th Celebration

Thanks to Simon D and Liam who gave up their Friday evening to attend the Te Pūtāiki 30th Celebration. It was a lovely evening with a fascinating address from one of the founders on how the society came into being and great to celebrate with Te Pūtāiki members.


Alumni Successes

 

Many congratulations to Geneviève Barry who won the 2023 writing prize for best article published in the recently released eighth edition of the New Zealand Women’s Law Journal. Geneviève’s article is entitled “A feminist approach to the recovery of childrearing costs in wrongful conception cases in Aotearoa New Zealand” and is based on her LLB Hon research dissertation under the supervision of Professor Steven Todd and Professor Ursula Cheer.

Geneviève Barry

Commercial, business and property law expert, Sam Thorp has been announced as the newest partner at White Fox & Jones. Sam started his career after graduating from UC in 2017 at White Fox & Jones as a Junior Solicitor and has quickly worked up the ranks to Partner, thanks to his strong negotiation, communication and relationship management skills, commercial property knowledge and pragmatic approach to complex transactions.

Sam Thorpe

Ariana Stevens has been awarded Tū Rangatira, the supreme award at the Ngā Tohu Reo Māori awards. Read more on her mahi on te reo here.

Miranda Gray has become a partner at Tavendale & Partners. Miranda has been a guest lecturer in recent years in the Pacific Legal Studies and Evidence courses, and a supporter of Pacific law students.

Andy Luck made Partner at Meredith Connell.

Andy Luck
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