10th Anniversary of the NUJS-HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is delighted to announce that the 10^th NUJS-HSF National Moot Court Competition 2018 (the Moot) will take place on 3 – 5 March 2018 at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) campus in Kolkata, India.

Over the last decade the Moot has gained a reputation as one of the foremost corporate law moots in the country. It has provided a platform for law students to learn about the rich and complex field of Indian corporate law and sharpen their advocacy skills. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Moot, HSF has published a book (The NUJS-HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition: The Collected Problems), compiling the ten problems of the Moot to date. Not only does the book aim to showcase the problems that generations of Indian law students have dissected but it also highlights contemporary issues from the corporate world which law students, practitioners and businesses may find of interest.

Themes from previous editions of the Moot include joint venture disputes, corporate insolvency, minority shareholder rights, disputes regarding shareholder agreements and share transfer restrictions, insider trading and takeover regulations. This year's problem, drafted by Dr Umakanth Varottil, places contestants in the shoes of litigants at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal and focuses on minority shareholder rights.

As in previous years there will be five rounds to the Moot starting with two preliminary rounds where all twenty teams will argue once as Appellants, and once as Respondents. The panel judging the finals this year will consist of the Honourable Justice Soumen Sen of the High Court at Calcutta, Chris Parsons, Chairman of India Practice at HSF, Nicholas Peacock, Partner and Head of India Disputes at HSF, Dr Umakanth Varottil, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at National University of Singapore and Joyjyoti Misra, General Counsel at Uber India.

Commenting on the 10 year anniversary, Chris Parsons said:

"The fact that we have reached the milestone 10^th Moot Competition in partnership with NUJS is testament to the strength of our relationship with this great university. We remain very proud of our long association and of the wonderful moot problems that have tantalized and tormented generations of law students. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to both the organisation and participation in this aspirational competition, over the years."

Dr. P. Ishwara Bhat, Professor and Vice Chancellor of NUJS said:

"As the head of the Institution, it has been a pleasure to see the students take upon them to organize this moot. I convey my best wishes to the participants, organisers and the team at HSF for building and contributing to the legacy of this moot court competition over the years,"

The 2018 Moot will see participation from 20 leading universities in India: NLIU, Bhopal; School of Law, Christ University; NUALS, Kochi; RGNUL, Patiala; CLC, Delhi; GLC, Mumbai; NLU, Jodhpur; SLS, Pune; Amity Law School, Delhi; NALSAR, Hyderabad; Jindal Global Law School; Sastra School of Law; NLU, Delhi; Institute of Law, Nirma University; Gujarat National Law University; NLU, Odisha; ILS, Pune; RMLNLU, Lucknow; NUSRL, Ranchi; and NLSIU, Bangalore.

More details about the Moot are available here

As part of HSF's wider commitment to India the firm continues to support various initiatives with Indian law schools including: the HSF Community Engagement Awards, designed to recognise and champion meaningful and high impact community engagement activity among law students in India; the NLU Delhi International Negotiation Competition; the International Lecture Programme jointly organised in India by HSF and Oxford University, and HSF Bridge, which connects law students with local charities and social causes in India, currently running across five Indian law universities.