Two Sussex law students have won a national competition that tests the interviewing and consultation skills of aspiring lawyers.

Robert Black and David Crockford, both students on the Graduate Diploma in Law, triumphed in the finals of the 2011 Client Interviewing Competition, held in Oxford on Saturday (5 March).

The contest requires law students, working in teams of two, to interview and advise a 'client' (a role-playing actor). The aim is to test their interpersonal skills as well as their ability to handle a legal problem.

Nine teams in the finals undertook three interviews each, focused on the theme of 'Privacy, defamation and confidentiality'.

Mary Lee, Tutorial Fellow in Law at Sussex, said: "To my knowledge this is the first time that the Sussex Law School has ever won this event. Robert and David clearly performed consistently over three interviews - to a very high standard. Our team this year really did do exceptionally well."

Robert and David won the chance to represent Sussex after taking part in skills workshops in the Sussex Law School and then winning an internal client interviewing competition, sponsored by local solicitors DMH Stallard.

The pair will now go on to represent England and Wales in the 2011 International Client Consultation Competition, to be held in April at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. They will compete against law schools from all over the world: last year there were 22 international teams.

Graham Robson, chair of the Client Interviewing Competition for England and Wales, said: "The Oxford Brookes team finished runners-up in the 2010 international competition. I have judged the Sussex team and they are certainly as good, so fingers crossed."

Robert and David have already won prizes of £250 each from the Law Society, and Sussex Law School received £1,000 towards the team's expenses in taking part in the international competition.

(from Sussex University website
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/index.php?id=7314&sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d779862dd9b6977%2C0 )