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Earlier this term, Dal鈥檚 Schulich School of Law placed first among eight Canadian law schools at the National Labour Arbitration Competition in Toronto.

Held at the end of January, and sponsored by the Toronto law firm Mathews Dinsdale, the competition saw second-year Law students Andrew Mercier and Will McLennan triumph over second-place University of Toronto.

The two students three months preparing an argument for a problem involving a pension-plan grievance and two disciplinary grievances between a union and its employer. The students were responsible for researching the applicable law and structuring arguments for both the employer and the union.

For Will, participating in the competition was a valuable learning experience.

鈥淚t was by far the best decision I鈥檝e made in law school,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he competitive moots give you a better taste for what 鈥榬eal law鈥� will be like.鈥�

A confident performance

Although the students felt confident during their first moot against UBC, they found their questions in their second moot against Queen鈥檚 much tougher.

鈥淚 walked out of that thinking that we had lost,鈥� said Andrew. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think the panel was buying my argument 鈥� so we were pleasantly surprised to make it to the final.鈥�

And what a panel to have to face in the final round of competition: the adjudicators were Supreme Court of Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell, Ontario Labour Relations board chair Bernard Fishbein, and Canada Industrial Relations board chair Ginette Brazeau.

So how were the Dal students able to prevail? The students credit, in no small part, their coaches, professors Lorraine Lafferty and Eric Slone, who helped them prepare by challenging their arguments for each side.

鈥淥ur coaches were beyond helpful,鈥� says Will. 鈥淭hey helped me improve my oral advocacy skills a huge amount. I was terrified of speaking 鈥榠n court鈥� before, which was part of the reason I did the moot, to force myself to get over that. Their encouragement and advice helped me through it.鈥�

The coaches, in turn, are proud of Will and Andrew鈥檚 performance.

鈥淭hey were confident and professional in their presentations and undaunted by the rigorous questions put to them,鈥� says Prof. Lafferty. 鈥淚nnis Christie, a prominent labour arbitrator and former dean of the law school, was a great supporter of this moot. He would be delighted to know that the competition trophy is returning to Dalhousie for a fourth time.鈥� (Dal previously won this competition in 2001, 2002, and 2008; this year鈥檚 win ties Dal with Toronto tied for the most wins in competition history.)

Bringing it home

Also helping the students were those who assisted with practice rounds, including labour lawyers from Pink Larkin and McInnis Cooper and Professor Bruce Archibald.

鈥淭he competition was a ton of fun,鈥� says Andrew. 鈥淲e had a super team, including our coaches, and it鈥檚 all about the people you do it with. It was also nice to win it for Dal.鈥�

鈥淚t was an experience I won鈥檛 soon forget,鈥� adds Will. 鈥淧lus, bringing home a win for Dal and the law school was a huge bonus! It鈥檚 always nice to make your classmates and professors proud.鈥�