Organised annually, the Advocacy Cup is the primary trial advocacy competition for local law students, and pits the quickest-witted and most eloquent students against each other.  A competition that originated in NUS, it was open to SMU students a few years ago.

The competition was held in three rounds across a period of three weeks.  From the initial 64 participants (10 of whom were from SMU) in the preliminary rounds, 12 progressed to the semi-finals held in late March, and four entered the final held on 1 April 2016.

Final-year law student Amber Joy Estad became the sole SMU representative in the semi-finals and final, which was judged by Honourable Judicial Commissioner Kannan Ramesh SC; Director of Dispute Resolution for Drew and Napier Hri Kumar Nair SC; and NUS Associate Professor Lee Yen Kee, Ruby.

The problem this year concerned a woman from Inner Mongolia who was accused of wrongfully confining a kidnapped person in her house.  The kidnapped person was one of several girls from Inner Mongolia who were regularly brought to the accused’s house and locked up in the room.  The accused claimed that she had to protect them from her step-son and never allowed the girls to leave the house.

In the end, Amber, who was assisted by her course-mate Tan Siew Ann (also in her final year) as her witness, emerged 1^st Runner-Up of the competition.

On her achievement, Amber said, “I found the Advocacy Cup to be a challenging and enriching experience.  There is no better way to learn and develop skills in advocacy than to simply try and try again!”

[Featured photo: Amber (3rd from right) with fellow winners and the honorable judges - Hri Kumar Nair SC (1st from left), Kannan Ramesh SC (1st from right) and Assoc Prof Lee Yen Kee, Ruby (2nd from right).]