First Year Appellate Competition 2010
March 01, 2010
Professor Stephen Pitel and Michael Lerner present the First Year Appellate Competition trophy to Jeffrey Warnock.
After a challenging final round judged by Professors Andrew Botterell, Stephen Pitel and Chris Sherrin, Jeffrey Warnock was named the winner of the 2010 First Year Appellate Competition. The other three finalists were John Mather, Steven Pulver and Gillian Fournie.
They argued an appeal of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. A.M., which concerned the reasonableness of a “sniffer dog” search of a high school student's backpack. The First Year Appellate Competition was held over three days, and involved some 70 competitors.
The preliminary rounds were judged by third-year students with experience on Western's external moot teams. In addition to the four finalists, the judges awarded runner-up prizes to Scott Sobering and Jared Schwartz. Honourable mentions went to Carly Cohen, John D’Alimonte, Jeffrey Hamel, Christine Hobkinson, Kellie Hodges, Jenny Neiman, Andy Smith and Stephanie Sugar.
The competition, now in its eighth year, allows first-year students to further practice their oral advocacy skills between the end of the LRWA course in January and the Lerners LLP Cup in September.
It is organized by the Western Advocacy Club, and generously sponsored by Lerners LLP, which hosted a formal reception and dinner for all participants. Professor Erika Chamberlain, Director of the Competition, congratulated all participants on their impressive performances, and was pleased with the continued interest in and strength of Western Law’s oral advocacy program.
