This year’s OTLA Cup was hosted by Windsor Law School on March 5, 2016. Teams from Windsor, Queen’s, Western, Osgoode and Ottawa vigorously competed for various awards. The event started with a tour of Windsor law school on Friday afternoon which Francine Herlehy organized for the OTLA board members and the event sponsors. The event continued at the City Grill Bar & Restaurant in downtown Windsor where all the students, coaches, witnesses, jurors, event sponsors and Justice Carrie gathered for an evening of networking and festivities before the trial. A very special thank you to Collins Barrow and Bridgepoint Financial for sponsoring this wonderful dinner.
The competition began on Saturday morning with Justice Carrie presiding and our fellow board director Siona Sullivan as the “Registrar”. Before the event officially commenced, the students gathered for a breakfast generously sponsored by McKellar Structured Settlements . The students were absolutely fantastic to watch. They each exhibit exceptional advocacy skills. They were able to highlight the strengths in their cases with ease, while handling their weaknesses quite effectively. The witnesses were all very well prepared. It was obvious their counsel spent a lot of time getting them ready for their cross examinations by the opposing teams. Before closing their cases, the students and all participants gathered again for some socializing.
The closing statements were absolutely fantastic. The jurors, Derek Nicholson, OTLA Cup Chair, Michelle Jorge, OTLA Cup Vice Chair, Jennifer Carrie, counsel, Anna Szczurko (OTLA Cup committee), Laura Pearce (OTLA Cup committee) and local mediator intensely in order to reach a verdict.
After long and well thought out deliberations, the following were chosen:
1) Dayne Cook from Windsor won Best Opening
2) Laura Lepine from Western won Best Examination-in-Chief
3) Jennifer Cao from Queen’s won Best Cross-Examination
4) Juliano Pichini from Windsor won Best Closing
5) Shayla Stein from Queen’s won Best Overall Advocate
6) The Best Team was won by the Queen’s Team.
Thank you to all the generous sponsors of this excellent event.
Next year’s OTLA Cup will be hosted by Osgoode Hall Law School on March 4, 2017.