Cardiff Law success at regional client interviewing competition

Two second year Law students will be representing the School of Law and Politics at the national final of a Client Interviewing Competition after winning the regional heat this February.

Robert Wells, who studies Law and Politics, and Sasha Poole, who studies Law, competed against eight other university teams to be named as joint winners alongside students from the University of Plymouth at the South West Regional of the Client Interviewing Competition for England and Wales.

The regional round took place at the University of South Wales Cardiff campus on 15 February 2020 and involved teams of student lawyers interviewing new “clients” for the first time. The students needed to develop a rapport with the client, discover as much relevant information about the client's concerns as possible, ensure that they understood the problem, give pertinent and relevant legal advice and provide a practical set of options for the client to choose from as part of a range of hypothetical cases designed to highlight their skills.

The legal subject matter for the competition was Damage to Property: civil law which saw Robert and Sasha dealing with a difficult client who had cut down a neighbour’s tree and was reluctant to hand over a letter threatening to take the client to court. They also faced a client who was an animal rights activist who did not want to divulge his full intentions to cause havoc for people he felt should not be keeping goats in city gardens. These scenarios saw Robert and Sasha navigate aspects of law which included nuisance, negligence and trespass as well as testing their communication and people skills.

Speaking after the competition Professor Julie Price said, “Congratulations and thank you to Robert and Sasha who put a lot of effort into preparing for the competition in addition to keeping up with their degree studies. They are excellent Cardiff ambassadors. Thank you also to Sue Heenan for training a significant number of our students for our internal competition. Good luck to our team for the National Final.”

The Client Interviewing Competition is just one of the opportunities provided by the School of Law and Politics to help our students develop transferable skills which will be of use in their careers after graduation.

The national final of the Client Interviewing Competition has been postponed due to uncertainties about the current Coronavirus situation. The Competition Committee is hoping that it can be rescheduled in due course.