University of Ottawa students had another stellar year at the Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot championship. A runner-up finish for uOttawa’s Fox mooters in the 2019 finals adds another accolade for the school. That makes six straight semi-finals, four finals appearances, and three Fox Cups in the past six years.
The Common Law Section and the Civil Law Section both competed this year, with each Faculty taking home different awards. Both the 1st and 2nd place prizes for best speaker, and the award for best mooter in a non-graduating year were captured by uOttawa. These most recent successes further solidify a national and international reputation for mooting excellence in general, and in IP law specifically.
Coached by Professor Jeremy de Beer, the uOttawa Common Law team of five was led by team Captain Kristianne Anor, and included Jeremiah Kopp, Ashley Seely, Christian Clavette, and Sanjit Rajayer. The Civil Law Section team included Kelly Forestier, Rachel Jasmin, Sophie Ouellet, and Simon Fournier, and was coached by Maxime Desforge.
Mr. Kopp and Ms. Seely, for the Appellant, and Dr. Clavette and Mr. Rajayer, for the Respondent, were two of the top four teams after preliminary rounds argued in front of an all-star roster of federal and provincial court judges and IP practitioners. In the “all-Ottawa” semi-final, Kopp and Seely faced the Respondent team of Clavette and Rajayer, leaving Prof. de Beer and Ms. Anor as neutral observers of what would be an outstanding round. Justice Brown of the Ontario Court of Appeal, Chief Justice Crampton of the Federal Court, and the Honourable John Evans formerly of the Federal Court of Appeal, praised both teams in terms of the high calibre of advocacy, commenting that the future of the profession is “very bright”.
Inevitably, only one uOttawa team could advance to the finals. Thanks in part to the rigorous rehearsals against their friends, Kopp and Seely went through on this occasion.
In the finals against the University of Toronto, Kopp and Seely demonstrated elite-level advocacy and poise by deftly answering all questions from an esteemed bench that included: Justice Rowe of the Supreme Court of Canada, Justice Gauthier of the Federal Court of Appeal, Justices Feldman and Lois Roberts of the Ontario Court of Appeal, and Justice Manson of the Federal Court. “To argue as a law student in front of that bench,” said Seely, “is an astonishing honour.”
Sanjit Rajayer, a second-year JD candidate, took the title of best oralist, and with that won the Donald. F. Sim award. He joins a list of recent award-winning speakers from uOttawa at the Fox Moot, including Yasir Samad (2017), Fred Wu (2015), and Laurel Hogg (2014). With Rajayer also winning best mooter in a non-graduating year, uOttawa will automatically be entered in the 2020 Oxford Intellectual Property Moot. In addition, Sophie Ouellet, a LL.L. candidate, was runner up in the category of best oralist.
The success of the Civil Law’s team in their latest appearance in the competition, coupled with the outstanding advocacy of the Common Law’s team speaks to the overall excellence of the mooting culture of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law in two legal traditions and both official languages.
Anor attributes much of the team’s success to the extensive preparation in uOttawa’s Ian G. Scott Courtroom, an innovative fully-functioning courtroom and adjoining classroom within the law school, and to the outstanding supporters of the moot team.
We are especially grateful to our long-term lead sponsors Ridout & Maybee. We also thank the many Ottawa practitioners (and uOttawa mooting alumni!) now working at Caza Saikaley, the Copyright Board of Canada, Health Canada’s Office of Patented Medicines, Gowling WLG, Nelligan O’Brien Payne, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Smart & Biggar for volunteering their time for us. The University, team, and coach also thank our outstanding moot alumna and current CLTS doctoral student Katie Szilagyi for her mentorship of this year’s teams.
Kudos to the Fox Moot Committee, and the organizers from DLA Piper (Canada)—including but not limited to Angela Furlanetto, Sangeetha Punniyamoorthy, Geoff Mowatt—for another flawless execution. This year was especially impressive given the smooth simultaneous translated provided to make the Fox Moot again a truly national competition.
Congratulations also to teams and coaches from Queen’s University, Osgoode Hall, and the University of Toronto for winning well-deserved prizes for the best written submissions and the championship! The high calibre of all teams in the 2019 competition makes the experience all the more meaningful for everyone.
Photo by Jeremy de Beer, credits CC BY licence