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Symbiosis Law School, Pune hosted ‘The Louis M. Brown and Forrest S. Mosten International Client Consultation Competition-2017 (India National Round)’ in association with the Forum of South Asian Clinical Law Teachers. The three day event was inaugurated on 3rd February, 2017 with 34 teams participating across India.
Inauguration ceremony was graced with the presence of Chief Guest Hon’ble Mr. Justice H. L. Gokhale, Retd. Judge, Supreme Court of India and Keynote Speaker Prof. Upendra Baxi, Professor Emeritus, Warwick University, UK.
The valedictory ceremony on 5th February had Hon’ble Thiru. Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, Judge, Madras High Court and Hon’ble Justice Deepak Sibal, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court as the Guests of Honour.
Participants for the final round had the honor of being adjudged by Hon’ble Thiru. Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Deepak Sibal and Advocate Sampath Bulusu, General Manager, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Shell Hazira LNG & Port Companies.
Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Director, SLS, P, Dean Faculty of Law, SIU emphasized the importance of effective communication skills. She said that the Rule of Law and Impartiality are the two most important principles in the legal profession and SLS, P adheres to it with utmost care thus resulting into its students doing exceptionally good not just in national but the international forums. She apprised the audience that one of its student teams won the best memorial in the national rounds of NR Madhava Menon SAARC Mooting Competition: 2016-17 & have qualified for the International Rounds and the other team ranked second in the national rounds of the prestigious 58th Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition to proceed to the International Round to be held at Washington DC.
Advocate Sampath Bulusu motivated the teams to inculcate the skill of focusing on minute details to develop a strong case. He also said that though the state of the system of justice administration seems gloomy to many in the present day, it is faith that will make it survive.
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Deepak Sibal mentioned that trust, honesty and integrity are the thumb rule for success. He exhorted the student advocates to serve the clients to their satisfaction. Sharing different anecdotes from his life he said that we must gain the client’s trust and also that the clients are the best source of facts for any case.
Hon’ble Thiru. Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao said that the performance of a lawyer needs to be flawless irrespective of the fee that he gets as he serves a nobler purpose of serving the society by bringing out truth and upholding the cause of justice. A lawyer must always remember that he has to serve the society in the best possible manner keeping in mind that the rules have to be in conformity with the statute. He said, “Statute is the wheel of progress for the betterment of society in conformity with the natural justice”. Dr. B. S. Patil, Representative, National Steering Committee, Louis Brown Competition gave the closing remarks.
In the end, Hon’ble Thiru. Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao and Hon’ble Justice Deepak Sibal gave away the prizes to the winners. Ms. Samiksha Gupta, SLS, Pune won the Best Client award. The Runners Up award went to Ms. Pragya Srivastava and Ms. Anvita Oswal, Gujarat National Law University, Gujarat .
Pallavi Dehari and Srija Kumar from NALSAR, Hyderabad lifted the glittering trophy and will now represent India in the International Rounds to be hosted by University of Kent, Canterbury, England from April 19 – 22, 2017. The Competition is affiliated with the International Bar Association and collaborates closely with law societies and bar associations throughout the world.
In line with the prestigious competition, SLS, Pune also organized the third edition of its annual photography exhibition ‘Iridescence 2017’ & Book Exhibition on 4th and 5th February 2017. ‘Iridescence 2017’ showcased 170 photographs selected from the 500 entries by Mr. Shardul Bajikar, Director of Magazine, “Adventure Sports and Beyond”, under the categories, ‘Monochrome’, ‘Portraits & Street Photography’, ‘Nature & Wildlife’, and ‘Miscellaneous’. The Book exhibition displayed over 1400 books from plethora of publishing houses such as Oxford, Cambridge, Routledge, the Harvard Business Review, Simon and Schuster, Bloomsbury, Penguin and Thomson Reuters.
Dr. Bindu Ronald proposed the vote of thanks.
