King's College London

The King’s team – featuring Saras Sawhney, Sammy Chen, Sarah Tsoi and Nadia Mikail, and coached by King’s alumni Caleb Kirton and Andrew Brown – achieved a unanimous victory in their semi-final following outstanding performances in their preliminary rounds, but narrowly lost the final to a team from Gray’s Inn.

Saras Sawhney was awarded Best Oralist in the final, Sammy Chen was ranked in the top-10 oralists in the preliminary rounds, and the team won Best Written Pleadings.

The King’s team said, “It has been an incredibly challenging and enriching privilege to represent King’s College London at the Jessup UK & Ireland National Rounds 2021. Through reaching the Final and achieving best scores for our written memorials, as well as one of ours achieving Best Oralist in the Final, we have seen ourselves grow through the highs and lows as a team.”

The Jessup International Law Mooting Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition, featuring participants from approximately 700 law schools and 100 countries.

First held in 1960, the competition sees teams of law students compete against one another and present oral and written pleadings, arguing both the applicant and respondent positions, for a fictitious legal dispute between nations.

The team, which has ranked in the top five teams in the world in five of the last six International Rounds, will now compete remotely in the competition’s Global Rounds in March and April.

The students were generously supported in their preparation by Lucas Bastin (Essex Court Chambers) and Andrew Carruth (Quadrant Chambers), and by academic staff, in particular, Professor Philippa Webb.

The team coaches expressed their appreciation and admiration for former coach Aqeel Noorali, who tragically passed away in late 2020.

Aqeel was instrumental to the recent success of King’s Jessup teams, coaching teams in 2016 and 2017 to two consecutive UK National Championships and top-five world rankings.