Advocacy Development Programme

A group of students in The Dickson Poon School of Law have established an Advocacy Development Programme - an initiative to support King’s College London students in developing their advocacy skills.

Here, student Juanita Derex-Briggs of the ADP team introduces the project:

“The ADP is a student-led initiative that aims to provide a structured development programme to nurture and enhance the mooting and advocacy skills of students at all levels. In partnership with the KCL Bar Society, KCL Law Society and KCL Mooting Society, we aim to promote mooting as a rewarding discipline that will enable students to acquire and develop valuable and transferable skills. We will be encouraging students to take advantage of the vast amount of mooting opportunities available at King’s. Through a tailored and structured framework, ADP provides a programme that will meet the needs and experience of each individual student. Additionally, the programme aims to boost King’s performance at external mooting competitions by identifying talented mooters with the commitment to represent the College at national and international moots.

The ADP has two working levels that students can join, depending on their level of experience with mooting – Novice; and Junior. We will be holding events tailored specifically to the needs of students at each stage. At the Novice level, we will hold a series of ‘En Route to Moot’ seminars and students at that level will be assigned a mentor who is at least a Junior mooter. At the Junior level, students can be identified as good candidates to compete in national moots. Each national moot team will be assigned a coach to improve their ability to moot as a team.

The ADP will also introduce the Moot Court Honour Board which serves to recognise the achievements of the best mooters at King’s. Each year, three awards will be awarded for the best mooters in the following categories: King’s Novice Advocate of the Year, King’s Junior Advocate of the Year, Kin’s Advocate of the Year. The winners will have their names engraved on the Moot Court Honour Board which will be the centrepiece of the Moot Court Room in Somerset House East Wing. These awards will be made based on each individual student’s participation and achievements in mooting activities and competition throughout the academic year.

With the guidance and structure the ADP can provide, we foresee an increase in the number of good mooters at King’s, which will boost King’s presence and performance in national and international moots. The students who participate in the programme will develop invaluable advocacy skills that will be useful to both aspiring barristers and solicitors.

The ADP was pioneered by the previous president of the Mooting Society, David Menon. He set up a working group comprising of representatives from the law society, bar society, mooting society, and students who had actively participated in mooting. The current student programme managers are Juanita Derex-Briggs and Yin Wai Chan”

The ADP student initiative has the support of the Dean D. Caron, Dr Philippa Webb, Director of Mooting, and the School.