USask Law earning accolades at national moots

Congratulations to the USask Law team for its performance Feb. 14 to 16 at the 2025 MacIntyre Cup (Western Canada Trial Competition), which featured law schools from across Western Canada. Team members are: Veronica Dirk-Pothier, Fakeha Jamil, Joshua Lilly, and Mary Mysak. They are coached by Shelby Fitzgerald.

Additional congratulations to Mary Mysak, who received the Judge’s Choice Award for Best Opening Statement, which was presented by Manitoba Provincial Court Chief Judge Ryan Rolston.

The college is grateful to the Saskatchewan Trial Lawyers Association for its sponsorship of this team.

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The USask Law Jessup moot team had a great weekend competing in the Bennett Jones Jessup Canadian Rounds in Ottawa Feb. 20 to 22. This competition is part of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

The USask Law team participated in six highly competitive rounds amongst 18 Canadian schools. The team is:

• Applicants: Michael Bergen and Ethan Hupe
• Respondents: Joi Ines and Zach Baxter
• Coaches: Rochelle Blocka, Michelle Biddulph, Breanna Needham

From coach Michelle Biddulph: "The Jessup moot is not for the faint of heart, and these four gave it their all week after week from the release of the problem in September right up until the competition in February. It was a pleasure to work closely with them as they learned and grew as advocates. I was honoured to be their coach for the bulk of the year, but special shoutout to Rochelle Blocka for doing all the heavy coaching lifting once I stepped back in order to fulfill my normal judging role in the moot. It takes a village to get a team to a competition-ready stage, so thank you so much to the dozens of lawyers and judges who dedicated hours of their spare time to judging practice moots. All four students benefitted immensely from your wisdom!"

Jessup is the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from roughly 700 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions. The competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice. Teams prepare oral and written pleadings arguing both the applicant and respondent positions of the case.

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USask Law took home many of the top awards at the National Family Law Negotiation Competition held virtually Feb. 27 to March 1.

• Mackenzie Singer and Anjani Sharma won the event
• Dominique Panko and Laura Chartier took second place
• Mackenzie won Best Individual Negotiator
• Dominique placed third in the Individual Negotiator category
• Dominique and Laura were runners-up for Best Representation Plan

This was truly a great end to the team’s hard work this term. From the team: “We could not have achieved this without our wonderful coaches, Gisele Dumonceaux and Kane Fritzler, as well as assistant coaches, 3L students Mack Dumba and Eryn Stewart."

The team is also grateful to team alumni and lawyers who joined them in their practices – watching the team negotiate or negotiating with them – and offering valuable feedback to help the team fine-tune their skills. It was a great result that everyone is very proud of.

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The USask Law team did an excellent job representing our college at the Gale Cup moot competition Feb 28 and March 1 in Toronto, reports coach Zachary Carter. “All four students rose to the occasion and excelled in oral arguments in arguing the appeal of R v Bykovets. We are also pleased to report that Priya Braithwaite was awarded the Newton Prize for Civility.”

The Gale Cup team is Kathleen Stoneham, Priya Braithwaite, Vanessa Pankiw and Sahej Toor, coached by Zachary Carter and Thomas Hynes.

Founded in 1974, the Gale Cup Moot is one of Canada’s premier bilingual law-school mooting competitions; this year’s edition was the 52nd annual. Award winners from 2012 onward are posted on the Gale Cup website and while the Nunavut Law Program, based at USask, won the prize for civility in 2020 and for best factum in 2021, this is the first award USask Law has received.

Said Carter: “This is great momentum for USask receiving due credit for its stellar students and moot program in this competition.”

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USask Law's Laskin team brought home the college's best-ever finish at this moot, placing second overall at the competition held Feb. 27 to March 2 in Montreal.

Congratulations to the team of Kostas Bach, Kira Dmytryshyn, Jared Graham, Alkida Luca and coach Audrey Sembalerus (JD’18).

“I am very proud of my team and they did an absolutely amazing job,” said Sembalerus.

The pair of Kira and Alkida made it to the final round and were named the second-place pair after mooting in front of the Honourable Nicholas Kasirer of the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition to this success, Kira and Alkida tied with each other for third place in the individual oralist category.

Nineteen schools from across Canada participated at the Laskin, a bilingual moot in Canadian administrative and constitutional law. A total of 38 pairs and 76 participants mooted in front of judges and lawyers from all over the country, including the federal court and the federal court of appeal.