Robson Hall was ably represented at the prestigious Lenczner Slaght/CBA Gale Cup Moot in Toronto earlier this year by Matthew Armstrong, Meira Gisser, Carolyn Reimer, Sivananthan Sivarouban. The team was coached by Professor Debra Parkes and a number of Manitoba’s top criminal and constitutional lawyers: Nathaniel Carnegie, Michael Connor, Ami Kotler, Neil Steen, andLiz Thomson. In the course of preparing for the national competition, the Robson Hall team appeared before members of the Manitoba bench and bar in a series of practice moots, culminating in a mock appeal on February 13th before Chief Justice Richard Scott on the eve of his retirement from the bench, along with Justice Richard Chartier (now Chief Justice of Manitoba) and Justice Diana Cameron.

In honour of the retirement of Chief Justice Richard Scott, the three levels of court in Manitoba have established an endowment fund at Robson Hall to be named the Richard J Scott Endowment Fund. The fund will provide scholarships to the students selected to represent the University of Manitoba at the Gale Cup Moot. Chief Justice Scott stated that “Strong advocacy skills – written and oral – are at the heart of successful lawyering… I am delighted to learn that the Manitoba Law School, which has a fine tradition of producing excellent advocates, will be participating in this prestigious competition.” As of the date of the Gala Dinner in honour of Chief Justice Scott on February 9, 2013 over $88,000.00 had been raised by the Manitoba judiciary (including matching funds from the Manitoba Government). Since then, members of courts across the country and of the profession have added to the fund.

Founded in 1974, the Gale Cup Moot provides top law students from across the country with the chance to argue before three-judge panels hearing a mock appeal from a real-world decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. This year’s case was R. v. D.A.I., which addressed the testimonial competence of adults with mental disabilities. The team of students from Osgoode Hall Law School took home the 2013 Gale Cup.

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