Law students from eight law schools came together over the Jan. 24 weekend to participate in the annual Canadian Labour Arbitration Competition, hosted by Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP.
On the first day of the competition, teams from the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Dalhousie, Queen’s, Toronto, Western Ontario, and Osgoode Hall presented their arguments before various three-member panels at the Ontario Labour Relations Board building in downtown Toronto.
The arbitration panels were made up of several members of the labour and employment law community, including arbitrator Mary Ellen Cummings, and Koskie Minsky LLP founding partner Alan M. Minsky.
The location was ideal, commented one associate with the firm, as it gave students the chance to compete in the same rooms they may end up working in some day. The lawyers at Mathews Dinsdale regularly represent employers before the labour relations board.
Unique from other moots, the teams were expected to present both sides of the argument. During the morning competition, the students were assigned to represent either the union or management side. For the afternoon portion, the roles were reversed.
The competitors were frequently interrupted with questions and probing from the panel, a feature designed to help hone their advocacy skills, according to Mathews Dinsdale partner Joseph Liberman. Relatively little weight was placed on the actual legal issues and research; the majority of the competitors’ score was made up from the quality of the presentation and their ability to respond to the panel and their opposing team.
On the second day of the competition, the teams from Queen’s and Toronto had earned the most points and went on to compete in the finals. After the flip of a coin, Queen’s was chosen to play the role of the union, represented by students Adam Epstein and Jim McKeown. The University of Toronto team, Laura Johnson and Inie Park, played the role of management.
Both sides presented very strong arguments. “[The teams] absolutely knocked our socks off,” said Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Eileen E. Gillese, who acted as a member of the arbitration board for the final competitors. She said whether you practise in the boardroom with arbitrators or before the courts, the skills required to do well are the same.
In the end, the judges concluded the University of Toronto team had given the slightly superior performance, based on the quality of its oral presentation and ability to effectively respond to questions.
The team had a “very good mastery of the importance of eye contact,” said arbitration board panelist Kevin Whitaker, chairman of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. They also did a fine job of conceding on the tough points while capitalizing on their strongest arguments, he said.
This is the second time Toronto has taken the trophy; the first time was in 2007.
Click here for a slideshow of photographs from the event.
