Students from Kent Law School are preparing to take part in national competitions in Negotiation and Client Interviewing, with teams having been selected following a series of challenging internal competitions.

The preparations are the beginning of what will be the second year that Kent students have taken part in the national negotiation competitions. The Law School runs a very popular open and non-credit bearing module in negotiation, with students learning through a series of seminars and in-house competitions which blend theory and practice to teach this fundamentally important legal skill. Students were selected for the national competition by participation in the module, with teams representing both the Canterbury (Vivian Chan and Rebecca Newman) and Medway (Andrew Radlett and George Dale) campuses.

Selection for the Client Interview team took place following a bespoke six week course designed and delivered at the University's Medway campus by the organiser of the national client interviewing competition. The course outlined the theory and practical skills required for client interviewing and culminated in an internal competition with five teams competing and the winners (third year students Kimberlee Smith and Amanda Richter) going through to the regional heats of the national competition, commencing in January 2012.

The Law School's mooting teams have already made a successful start to the year, advancing through the early rounds of national mooting competitions. Competitions in December saw students Matthew Gaunt and Adam Carter beat a team from Sussex in the first round of the English Speaking Union/Essex Court sponsored moot, with this success following a victory over Strathclyde University (last year's finalists) by Tom Barker and Maria Roach to progress to Round 2 of the OUP/BPP sponsored moot.

Mooting, Client Interviewing and Negotiation form an important part of the activities offered by Kent Law School to prepare students for successful future careers, helping them to acquire and develop a range of practical legal skills, underpinned by an outstanding academic understanding of the law.