Addressing the King's College London Bar and Mooting Society

Dickson Poon School of Law

Author Vladgrigore Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

Last November the University of St Andrews Law Society invited me to return to my alma mater to judge a mooting competition.   I wrote about it in Learning the Law in St Andrews - Mooting on 6 Nov 2024. Yesterday I was asked by the King's College London Bar and Mooting Society to join a panel discussion on intellectual property practice.  As I had previously worked with  Professor Frederick Mostert on a project for the World Intellectual Property Organization which I mentioned in Another Side of the WIPO on 5 Sept 2019, I was delighted to return to King's College.

On arriving at the college's porters' lodge I met my colleague, Mark Engelman,  He old me that he had also been invited to sit on the panel.  Shortly afterwards we were joined by officers of the Society who led us through the security gates to the seminar room where the meeting was to take place. The meeting started just after 18:30.  I did not count the audience but I would say that there were between 15 and 20 attendees including the speakers.  

Mark asked the students how far they had reached with their law students,  Most were undergraduates and some were in their first year but there was one graduate student from Switzerland.  I asked whether any of them had joined an Inn.   The chair asked Mark and me to introduce ourselves and say a few words about our practices. We were asked how we got into intellectual property, what were our favourite cases, what frustrated us about IP practice, how the law had developed during our lifetimes, how it was likely to respond to new technologies and how artificial intelligence was likely to affect our practices.

The meeting ended at 19:30.  I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to catch a train at King's Cross at 20:30. I was just as impressed by the King's students as I had been impressed by the St Andreans.  I wished them every success in their studies and subsequent careers,   They all had the potential to excel,

I had already mentioned my chambers' mini-pupillage programme to Professor Mostert some time ago and asked him to encourage them to apply.  I repeated that invitation yesterday.  I have also invited applications from the students at St Andrews and Bangor University.  Our programme lasts 3 days and includes the opportunity to participate in advocacy exercises and attend talks and workshops with members of chambers.  Had anything like the programme existed when I was a student I would have jumped at the opportunity.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page.