In March 2008 Australian Law Students’ Association (ALSA) Council meeting, Bond and Griffith University law societies, UQ, QUT and the relevant Queensland ALSA office bearers voted to form the Queensland Law Students’ Association.

Objectives

The Association has two short-term objectives. The first is to provide a knowledge-sharing forum for the executives of Queensland’s law students’ societies. This will involve helping to establish a society at the University of Southern Queensland’s two campuses (Springfield and Toowoomba), and helping out JCU. It is envisaged that there will be 2-3 meetings a year of Presidents and Vice Presidents (Education) to facilitate this.

The second short-term objective is to establish a Queensland law competitions championship (mooting, client interviewing, negotiation, witness examination and paper presentation). This would most likely occur in the lead-up to the Australian Championships that occur in July at the ALSA Conference.

This second objective has already been achieved through the inaugural QSLA Conference which was held by the Griffith Nathan Law Society in the July of 2008 and the second annual Conference recently held at Bond in May 2009.

The final objective is for the QLSA to act as a liaison between students and other peak bodies such as the Queensland Law Society and the Queensland Bar Association.

Competitions

The winners of QUOTALS Internal Competitions have to first right of refusal to represent QUT at the QLSA Conference.  If the winners of the decline the invitation, it then becomes the discretion of the respective runner–ups.  If they decline the invitation, the process will be conduct by general application open to all Bond Law Students.

Contact

For more information on QLSA, please contact alsa@quotals.com or become a member of the QLSA group on Facebook.

QUT representatives braved the wind, rain and a 6am start to compete at the QLSA (Queensland Law Students Association) practical legal competitions at Bond University on the Gold Coast last Sunday 7 May.

2009 heralded the second year of the competitions which were a resounding success with delegates competing against students from James Cook University, University of Queensland, Griffith (Nathan and Gold Coast) and Bond.

Jamie Nuich and Shaan Stone, our pre-eminent Negotiators took the competition as an opportunity to investigate different techniques in anticipation of the forthcoming ALSA Conference in July while Tim Alexander refined his trial techniques in a performance worthy of the rainmaker in the Witness Examination Competition. Congratulations to Lara Soldi and Sarah Jackson who took out the Client Interviewing Competition.

University of Queensland took out the mooting competition with Tim Mason and Jules Moxon beating Bond University in a final that went down to wire at the Banco Court on Monday 18 May 2009. Tim and Jules earned the right to represent Queensland at the 22nd LAWASIA Conference, which will be held in November in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  Special thanks to the Queensland Law Society for its generosity in providing sponsorship for the two boys to attend the conference.