A retelling of my experience trying out for and participating in the Arnup Cup, the only competitive trial level moot offered at UofT law.
My interest in the Arnup Cup competition was an extension of my love of mooting. Before this year, I had participated in four oral advocacy events while in law school: the Stewart Cup, 1L Trial Advocacy, the Legal Innovation and Technology Competition, and the Competition Law Moot. With each experience I felt myself grow as an advocate. In 3L, the Arnup represented my last chance to compete in pretend court before beginning my articling at a civil litigation boutique.
So I enrolled in the Trial Advocacy class in the Fall term. Near the beginning of the class, the Faculty communicated to us that the top eligible performers would be selected for the Arnup Cup. Our professor Julie Hannaford told us multiple times that our class was exceptional, and I believe her. I knew only two mooters would be selected and I knew it would be tough to make the cut.
After the initial workshops, which covered basic skills, we ran a mini trial. I was paired with Humza Khan (2L) who had a lot of experience in trial advocacy competitions from his undergraduate. Khan taught me a lot about the theatrics necessary to be a successful trial advocacy mooter: hand gestures, the correct emphasis on words, and moving around the space.
Later in the semester, our final assignment was to run an entire civil trial. Shelby Hohmann (3L) and I paired ourselves together. Hohmann spent her last summer at a criminal defence firm, I was super excited to be working together. We collaborated incredibly well and helped each other elevate our sections into a strong and cohesive case.
The night of the final trial Shelby and I were nervous but ready. Our witnesses, Daniel Jolic (3L) and my fiancé, had worked super hard to prepare. Jolic even came in costume, using a cane because his character had been permanently disabled after falling from a horse. He was such a great actor that the registrar genuinely thought he needed assistance getting into the witness box!
My personal highlight of the trial was when I made a successful Browne v Dunn objection. I wrote a sticky note to Hohmann “I’m gonna object re Browne”. She looked at me and shook her head cautiously—it was a high risk move and we had already failed an objection earlier. However, I felt confident we would succeed and decided to go for it. The opposing side was about to contradict our witness on cross on a point not raised during the in-chief examination. I stood up and objected. The objection was sustained.
After the final trial, I received an email notifying me that I had been selected to participate in an additional Arnup tryout. It was the middle of exam season, but I decided to go for it. I elected to run my cross examination for the tryout, which was more challenging than my in-chief examination but also demonstrated a broader range of my skill set. I competed against four other highly skilled mooters for two seats. For my tryout the witness was played by Corie Langdon, a Crown attorney. She played a tough witness, but the cross examination went relatively well. I had no idea if it would be enough. Luckily, I made the cut and was selected to participate in the Arnup Cup with Janna Getty (3L). Janna had previously mooted in the Callaghan Memorial Moot last year and has spent her last two summers with the Ministry of the Attorney General in the human trafficking division. I was immediately looking forward to working together.
Getty and I dove into the problem immediately after New Years. The problem was 51 pages long with six pages of exhibits. We represented the defendant, Mark Johnston, and the Crown would be representing Jason Walters. The facts of the case are as follows: on the night of June 11, 2024, Walters and Johnston met at Halo Nightclub to discuss a settlement for an outstanding civil claim between them. The meeting rapidly turned hostile. The hostility culminated with Johnston yelling “Gun!” and striking Walters with a bar stool. The issue before the court was whether Johnston was acting in self defence.
Our coaches were three senior criminal lawyers. Two Crown attorneys, Corie Langdon and Emily Marroco, and defence lawyer Royland Moriah. All our coaches brought with them years of valuable real court and pretend court experience. We met multiple times a week to workshop different sections. Our coaches shredded our initial drafts to bits, but it was all worth it when the final drafts began to come together. In the week leading up to the Arnup, we had two in-person run throughs and an exhibits workshop to practice working in physical spaces.
The Arnup took place from February 6 to the 7 at the Federal Court in Toronto. Historically, the Arnup has been jointly run by Weirfoulds LLP and the Advocate Society. However, this year the Advocate Society dropped out and Weirfoulds had to step up to save the entire event by running everything. The Arnup consisted of four rounds with eight Ontario law schools competing: the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law (Lakehead University), Lincoln Alexander School of Law (Toronto Metropolitan University), Osgoode Hall Law School (York University), Queen’s University Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Western University Faculty of Law, and University of Windsor Faculty of Law. Each round is before the same judge, jury, and witnesses in order to standardize the evaluation as much as possible.
At the Arnup we competed on the first day in the second round slot against the team from Queens. The competition began at 12:30pm with 45 minutes of witness prep. Unlike real life, we were permitted to “woodshed” our witnesses as much as we liked. The witnesses were Weirfoulds associates. We explained to them our theory of the case and how we wanted them to approach potential cross questions.
The Crown opener revealed that Queens planned to use a prior charge as a key point in their arguments. However, we remembered that the Sopinka Rules of Evidence explicitly excluded the prior charge’s use. I wrote a sticky note to Getty, “They better not—I’ll object.” As predicted, during their first in-chief examination, they began to ask questions about the prior charge. I immediately objected, and successfully kept the details of the prior charge out of the evidence.
I spoke first for our team in the primary cross. The cross went relatively well except for one curve ball. Luckily, the night before, Janna and I had chatted about how to handle if Walters insisted when he told police he had been “carrying his gun for months,” he actually had meant he had been carrying the gun inside his home. Walters took that exact position on the stand. Luckily, Janna and I had prepared a line of questions to deal with it and make Walters look ridiculous.
The rest of the trial went incredibly smooth. It was the first moot where my Apple Watch didn’t give me multiple “high heart rate” warnings. Getty was an incredible co-counsel. She spoke with a lot of poise, handled the enlarged exhibits like a professional, and gave a great closing to tie our entire case together. I was so proud of our entire performance. The feedback we received after the trial was largely positive. In particular, I recall the judge, The Honourable Clayton Conlan’s, comment on my risky choice to incorporate yelling into the opening: “You definitely startled me. But I suppose that was the point and I suppose it was ultimately very effective”.
Getty and I attended the day one reception at Weirfoulds in high spirits. The drinks and food provided were great. Chief Justice Tulloch for the Ontario Court of Appeal gave a speech about successful trial advocacy. We mingled with the other teams, various lawyers, and judges present.
On day two, we headed back downtown for the awards dinner at Modus. The event began with a cocktail reception at 6pm that ultimately turned into a sit down dinner from about 7:30pm-9:30pm. The food was fantastic. We were offered the choice of three appetizers, three entrées, and three desserts. I had calamari, pasta, and tiramisu. They left us on the edge of our seats until 9pm to announce the winners.
Getty and I tied with the team from Windsor for second place and were chosen as the top defence team! The Winner was Osgoode’s team acting for the Crown. Getty and I congratulated the other finalists and wished them well at Nationals, the Sopinka Cup.
Now the prep for the Sopinka will begin soon. The Sopinka will be held in Ottawa over the March 15 to 16 weekend. There is a strong chance we will be required to switch sides and completely rework our whole case. It will be a lot of work in the coming weeks, but I am excited to start! I’m so thankful for my incredible coaches, fabulous co-counsel, and all the work everyone put in to get us to the Sopinka.
I’m so grateful for my entire trial advocacy experience this year. The skills necessary for trial advocacy are a lot different than appellant level mooting. I’m excited to continue learning and developing my advocacy skills to implement them one day in a real court room!
