Louis M Brown And Forrest S Mosten International Client Consultation Competition, India National Rounds, 2022 Commences At HNLU

While welcoming the guests of honour, Prof. VC Vivekanandan, Vice-Chancellor, HNLU, remarked that "The professional quotient of the new age lawyers has a remarkable scaling the graph whereas the ethical quotient does not match and declining. The need to help those who do not have the access to justice is also an important component of professional excellence."

In his address to the participants, Prof. Prasad remarked "Law colleges should produce competent and socially useful lawyers who are in a position to give it back to the society."

Senior Advocate L Ravi Chander touched upon the importance of ethical behaviour in the legal profession. He further encouraged the participants to look at these institutional competitions as windows and not doors.

Justice G. Raghuram in his address explained how knowledge is a progressive elimination of ignorance and not a positive element on its own. He threw the light on how ethics differs in different fields of litigation. He emphasized that listening is important than merely hearing which means absorption of the issues.

As with the inaugural ceremony, the two days of the competition will also be held in an online mode on March 5-6, 2022 where leading National Law Schools and Private Law Schools in India are participating.

This Client Counselling Competition for law students was established in 1969 by Louis M Brown, an American Attorney and pioneer of the field of preventive law. It was adopted by The American Bar Association in 1972 and the International Competition was inaugurated in 1985. In recognition of the inspiration he provided as the creator of the competition, the International Competition was named after Louis M Brown in 1993.

The competition provides an opportunity for law students to learn and hone their interviewing and counselling skills. Over the last ten years, law students from over 20 countries like Australia, China, Croatia, England and Wales, Germany, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Russia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the United States etc., have taken part in the worldwide competition.

Day two of the Competition on March 5, will have twenty-eight teams from leading law schools participating in the national rounds, which is a two-tier competition, viz. client interviewing and counselling; and post-interview and counselling stage, without client. The competition is judged on the basis of specific criteria like establishing the working atmosphere and professional approach, suggesting alternatives and allowing the client to make an informed choice etc. The 28 teams will compete to secure a place in the semi-finals where only 6 teams will be selected.

The finals slotted for March 6^th will have only two teams displaying their skills, with the winning team being accorded the honour of representing India in the International round of the Brown Mosten International Client Consultation Competition which is an annual event.

This year, the international competition is being hosted by the Hillary Clinton School of Law at Swansea University, Wales. It will be held remotely from April 19-24, 2022 like the past two years.