This year onwards, we will have a single national round for the Jessup and Stetson moots – Dr. Vinod Surana

Dr. Vinod Surana is the CEO & Partner of Surana and Surana International Attorneys. In this interview, he talks about the motivation behind conducting moots, the importance of mooting for a law student and the latest change in the National Rounds for Jessup and Stetsons..Bar & Bench: Surana & Surana International Attorneys conducts various moot court competitions including the National Rounds for Stetsons and Jessups. What has been the motivation behind such initiatives?.Vinod Surana: One day, in late 1980’s, while staying with our family, Justice Krishna Iyer, concerned with the talent crunch setting in at the Bar, spoke at length about the need to develop the advocacy skills of bright young law graduates. This prompted our founder Shri. P. S. Surana to create a well-structured and transparent moot court competition platform to prepare Indian law students for a talented Bar..Looking at the response to the programme, we decided to help others also to organize such competitions. We administered the first three editions of the Raj Anand Intellectual Property Moot at Delhi, sponsored and organized by the law firm Anand & Anand. This set an example of cooperation between two prominent law firms..During the last 19 years, our firm has planned, hosted, administered and sponsored over 110 moot court competitions in which close to 32,000 contestants, judges, volunteers, faculty and others have participated. This project is today the largest of its kind by any law firm..B&B: What are the various steps in organizing a moot court competition? How do you select which law school to collaborate with? How are the judges selected for the various rounds?.VS: The first step is to identify, from time to time, the skills that need to be developed – from our experience in dealing with clients, industry feedback as well as inputs received from the Judges and bureaucrats. Our Trial Advocacy, Corporate Laws and Technology Laws Moots were developed in response to such feedback..Though many top law schools want to host our moot competitions, we also try to select Tier 2 and Tier 3 law schools with potential to grow and make a mark. Thus, on one hand the latter get national exposure and experience in conducting such competitions. On the other, the skills development program has a wider reach. Today, due to our “rotating-the-moot” approach, close to 30 law schools have got the experience of organizing such competitions and quite a few of them have started their own competitions..Judges for our moots are predominantly selected and invited by the host institutions. We provide the host institutions with three lists of judges; one of those who have judged moots in earlier years; another list of those who have indicated their willingness to judge future rounds. The third list contains details on the winners of earlier editions of the moot who are now practicing/teaching and so on..B&B: In your opinion, how does mooting benefit a law student?.VS: Mooting helps develop the legal research, legal writing and oral advocacy skills among generations of laws students/young lawyers. As a result, law students with no family background in the profession are also motivated to join the Bar to display their skills, gain recognition and come up in life..Mooting also gives competent students a platform to get admission in top overseas law schools and get jobs with top law firm/lawyers..B&B: We’ve been told that there will now be only one national round instead of the earlier practice of regional rounds for Stetsons and Jessups. What are the reasons behind such a change?.VS: Yes, from this year onwards, we will have a single (national) round for the Jessup and the Stetson moot court competitions in India..One of the reasons is that there was a request from the international administrator to have a common round. Moreover, this move will increase the level of competition and address the regional imbalance in representations..The Jessup moot competition will have the following format:.-4 Preliminary rounds per team.-Semifinals (Top 4).-Finals (Top 2).The Stetson moot court competition will have the following format:.-2 Preliminary rounds per team.-Octo finals (Top 16).-Quarter finals (Top 8).-Semifinals (Top 4).-Finals (Top 2)