Expanding on Opportunities for Practitioner Interactions​

Adding more emerging practitioners to the Judging Database to provide more opportunities for feedback from diverse industry professionals and so that we can consistently deliver full panels for Semi and Grand Finals. 

Improving Skills Competitions Which Require Third Parties (Client Interviewing and Witness Examination)

• Providing opportunities for anyone to be a Client or Witness, providing greater insight into these competition formats especially for people considering these competitions.

• Reforming the Client Interviewing structure to avoid potential conflicts of interest between clients and competitors, primarily by discontinuing the practice where team-elected clients are interviewed by the electing team.

• Continuing to improve support for Clients and Witnesses in order to give them a clear understanding of what their roles require. This will include clearer instructions in their role to reduce the burden on volunteer third-parties to improvise, making the role easier for our valued volunteers!

Adding Best Speaker Award to Each Internal Moot Round!

We’ve seen the value that being recognised the Best Speaker of each round can provide from Women’s Moot and our other programs. We’re looking to introduce a Best Speaker award for the preliminary rounds to recognise the efforts that individuals put in for each round and encourage continued participation.

Re-Vitalising Skills: Witness Examination

• The area of competition we see growing the most next year is WitEx. Skills competitions are generally overshadowed by Mooting, primarily due to the low coverage it gets on our information platforms–but that does not necessarily mean we lack the resources to support those who are passionate about what can be the closest experience to Advocacy.

• We aim to provide overviews of the competition format and required skills on our social platforms in order to appeal to prospective competitors and point out the unique value that Wit-Ex provides.

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Evolving ESL Moot

• Moving the ESL Moot to Semester 2, rather than keeping it in the Winter Break where many students plan to visit family and travel to ensure that more International competitors are able to participate.

• Enhance the educational environment by introducing an additional preliminary round to deliver more experiences in Mooting and increase fairness in progression. 

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Continuing Client-Counsel Negotiations

• Following the success of the introduction of the new format this year, we hope to continue this competition in the Winter Break to provide an alternative to the typical Counsel-Counsel format. This is an excellent way to continue to develop internal experience, especially in a format that enables partners to fully leverage the different skills they bring to the table.

• As a format that is also utilised in Intervarsity and International Competitions, this can also help provide a further step between Internals and higher level competitions.

• We aim to release videos explaining the format alongside demonstrations of Client-Counsel to provide prospective competitors with more clarity on what the format looks like and how to balance the new dynamic!

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Intervarsity and International Competitions

• Demystifying the pathway into intervarsity and international competitions

  • ​Alongside the Competitions Calendar, we aim to make the pathway into IV and International competitions more transparent by providing examples, testimonials and demonstrations from those who have competed or coached in these competitions. This information would be included in the new Competitions Handbook, providing skilled Internal or IV competitors with greater clarity on what is required to progress to the next level.

  • We will host demonstrations from IV and International competitors early in Semester 1 to showcase the different formats that these competitions have which many prospective competitors considering these competitions may not be familiar with. This would provide greater insight into the formats and standards of these competitions, as well as enable prospective competitors with the opportunity to ask any questions they have directly to those who have already competed.

  • As part of our Digital Visibility policy, we will publish IV and International rounds which SULS competes onto the Competitions Youtube, alongside all of the demonstrations that we host to provide plenty of examples which everyone can access!

• Creating a more streamlined and transparent selection process for International Competition coaches.

  • We hope to make the selection process more equitable to provide greater opportunities for qualified prospective coaches to share their knowledge with teams and engage with SULS.

 

Competitions Team

• Broadened opportunities to be involved in Competitions

  • ​Judging Subcommittee: This new role will provide an opportunity for eligible competitors to take initiatives beyond convening as an active part of running the internal competitions. With anticipation for greater participation across Skills and Mooting competitions next year, this subcommittee will provide a robust network of reliable student judges.

• Convenor’s Handbook

  • ​Convenors are a vital part of running each competition–a Convenor’s Handbook will encompass a simplified guide to all competition structures, rules and expectations as well as tips and tricks to streamline the administrative experience! 

• Improving Introductory and Intermediate Mentoring Material

  • Our volunteer mentors are fundamental to introducing beginner competitors to our competitions, or helping intermediate competitors further develop their skills. We recognise that they are giving up valuable time to share their insights and knowledge with new competitors, and we want to make their lives as easy as possible so that they can best do so! Therefore, we hope to revise the current materials we provide mentors, adding in clearer information and guidelines to help them cover everything they need to.

  • We aim to incorporate information from the new Judging Handbook into these materials as well, to ensure consistency from the beginning and enable competitors to understand the specific criteria they are being judged on. This can also assist with providing feedback for the practice competition rounds towards the end of the Mentoring program.

• Judging Handbook

  • Pending the release of the Judging Handbook on 29 October 2025, we’re planning on receiving feedback from judges and competitors on how effective and useful it is, and releasing an updated version for the beginning of Semester 2 next year! This will help the document to grow organically, ensuring that we can continue to produce clear and useful information to improve consistency and predictability in judging and competitions progression.

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• Ongoing Support for the Entire Competitions Team

  • We plan on being as available as possible for our entire team by organising ongoing and flexible office hours so that we can hear any concerns or ideas they have. Beyond our office doors, our messages will always be open for you. Whether you need help with anything, or just want to have a yap, we’ll be around to tune in to whatever you have to say!