How we won ‘Best society for mooting’ at LawCareers.Net’s Student Law Society Awards

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The University of Nottingham Mooting Society (UON Mooting Society) is one of a handful of law societies at the university, and yet (and I may be biased here) it stands out as a society that truly feels like a family. We’re a community of like-minded students that operate in unison to support each other as aspiring advocates, fuelled by a communal passion for the symbiotic competition and camaraderie of moot court.

Leading this society has been the highlight of my university experience, and I was filled with the deepest sense of pride after finalising the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards president submission earlier this year. The committee and I spent plenty of time sifting through our accomplishments and the events we hosted over the course of the academic year, determinedly categorising them under the various awards that were up for grabs and crossing our fingers that our tireless efforts would be enough to gain the recognition that our society deserved. Rest assured – it paid off!

We were overjoyed to be nominated for the one award that we all had our eyes on – ‘Best society for mooting’. Receiving news of the nomination, alongside the unexpected addition of a nomination for ‘Best law society president’, rendered me incapable of wiping the cheesiest smile off my face – I was practically glowing with pride for our society.

I’ve been a member of the UON Mooting Society since my first year at university, where I took the risk and auditioned (despite having only mooted once before!) for our external mooting team. Despite the nerves and my anxiety-ridden submissions (I still cringe when I think about it), I was selected for the team. While I didn’t know it at the time, that was the start of my next few years with the society. It’s been an incredibly long journey, characterised by late nights frantically finalising skeleton arguments, caffeine-fuelled courtroom submissions and the mountain of work that came with being general secretary in my second year. This doubled (if not tripled…) in my final year when I became president, but if I could go back and do it all again, I would without a doubt.

Being president this year has given me a platform to give back to a society that has always supported me. I worked to develop and revitalise our society by consistently operating at the highest standard that we possibly could throughout the year.

At its heart, our society is a society that is completely devoted to the development and encouragement of its members, and I came into this year with a commitment to sticking to this underlying focus. I prioritised consistent training and skills-focused workshops with experienced legal professionals for our members and I’m so pleased to be able to say that we met our goal to run both internally and externally hosted workshops multiple times every month. We ran our internal competitions: the First Year Contract Moot, the (ongoing) First Year Tort Moot and our Second/third Year Criminal Moot competitions. We competed externally, with a number of moots (and victories – fingers crossed!) yet to take place.

Notably, we successfully hosted our society’s flagship event for the third year running – an intervarsity mooting competition called the Nottingham Moot Cup (NMC). The NMC was established in 2023 with the vision of making the University of Nottingham a powerhouse of mooting, and I had the privilege of competing in it as a beginner mooter in my first year. Fast forward to 2025, and I had the honour of being able to host the NMC – an opportunity that I’ll forever cherish.

I’d completely underestimated the amount of time and effort that organising and hosting a competition of such calibre would involve, but it was the most fun that I’ve had this entire year as president. From calling and chasing up last minute sponsorships, to navigating participant drop-outs and issues with moot bundles, and to frantically sourcing a panel of judges after facing unexpected hurdles, it was a transformative experience. The committee and I were delighted to see the event come to life on the 22 March and to see our efforts come into fruition as we welcomed participants from 12 universities, both local and international!

UON Mooting Society has excelled this year, and we’ve been successful in our goal of ensuring the development of our members as advocates, encouraging participation in both competitive and non-competitive mooting opportunities, and providing frequent high-level training to support growth and refine skills. We’ve increased in membership and received recognition for our accomplishments from our student union by being awarded ‘Society of the Month’ in March 2025.

Thank you to the team at LCN for creating and continuing the Student Law Society Awards, as it’s one of the only avenues by which legal student groups receive commendation for the work that they put in throughout the year to support their peers. I’ve been lucky enough to attend the awards twice now and can say for certain that the event has always ran at the highest possible standard. It’s an incredible opportunity to connect with committees from across the country and reflect over everything that has been achieved from the past year (and, of course, walking away with a stunning trophy doesn’t hurt either!).

Everyone at UON Mooting Society is immensely grateful for the support of our members and to LCN for enabling us to win the award for Best society for mooting – here’s to hoping we can secure it once again next year!

Rehma Khan is the president of the University of Nottingham Mooting Society in 2024/2025.