Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow has bagged the National
Client Counseling Competition title.

3rd UILS National Client Counseling Competition was organized by University Institute of
Legal Studies (UILS), Panjab University (PU) at the PU Campus. Gujarat National Law
University, Gandhinagar got second position.

RMLNLU student Sujoy Mazumdar was adjudged the Best Counsel, while Gaurav Pathak was
declared as Second Best Counsel. Prateeksha Mishra and Vidhi Sobti of Army Institute of
Law, Mohali were adjudged as the best and second best student counsels respectively for
the preliminary rounds.

UILS team being the host had not participated in the competition but its students posed
as the clients in the competition. UILS students Akshay Chadha got Best Client trophy
for the preliminary rounds, Aarti Goyal for the Semi Finals and Keshav Pratap Singh got
Best Client trophy for the Final rounds.
 

Based on the results of the previous day’s preliminary rounds, six teams had made it to
the semi-finals: Guru Gobind Singh IP University, Delhi, GNLU Gandhinagar, Symbiosis
Pune, Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University Lucknow, Army Institute of Law, Mohali,
and ITMU Gurgaon. The day began with the semi – final rounds adjudged by eminent
lawyers, law professors and alumni of UILS.
 

GNLU, Gandhinagar and RMLNLU, Lucknow made it to the finals. The final rounds were
judged by Hon’ble Mr. Justice H.S. Bhalla (Member, Haryana Human Rights Commission),
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pritam Pal (Lokayukta, Haryana), Professor Veer Singh (Director,
Chandigarh Judicial Academy), Professor V.K. Bansal (Emeritus, Department of Laws), Mr.
G.K. Chatrath (Former Dean of Law Faculty), Mr. Satya Pal Jain (Dean Law Faculty),
Professor (Dr.) R.S. Grewal (Founder Director, UILS) and Professor Sangita Bhalla.
The participants were evaluated on the basis of the working atmosphere, their competence
in eliciting the facts, ascertaining the client’s goals, their expectations and needs,
analysis and formulation of the legal problem, exploring the alternative courses of
action, facilitating the client in making of an informed choice, handling of ethical,
professional and emotional issues involved, team co-ordination and their response to the
judge’s query. Besides the skills of the budding lawyers, the communication skills of
the clients also came to the surface.

The ticklish issue of charging the appropriate fees from the clients and its
determination was taken up by the participants with great subtlety but it proved to be
Achilles’ heel for almost all the teams.
 

The Valedictory and Prize Distribution Ceremony was presided over by Hon’ble Mr. Justice
Rameshwar Singh Malik, Punjab & Haryana High Court. Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pritam Pal, and
Hon’ble Mr. Justice H.S. Bhalla, graced the occasion as Guests of Honour. The
Valedictory Address was given by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rameshwar Singh Malik.
In the welcome address, Ms. Sangita Bhalla dedicated this competition in memory of Late
Dr. Gurdial Singh Dhillon, alumnus of Punjab University Law College and Speaker of
Panjab Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha.

In the vote of thanks, Dr. Jasmeet Gulati (Teacher In-Charge) thanked the judges for
their valuable time, the participants who made the competition a great success,
appreciated the efforts of the faculty colleagues, university functionaries and student
heads and volunteers for making the client counseling competition a success and the
media for effective publicity of the flagship event. She also thanked Mr. Navdeep Goyal,
Dean Student Welfare, for providing with the accommodation and transportation facilities.
All the judges of the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High court expressed their happiness in
this kind of venture and said that the law students should rise above the mercenary
proposition in the profession of Law. They also expressed the importance of
communication skills for legal profession by citing interesting anecdotes and emphasized
the importance of such competitions for inculcating professional ethics among the students.
3rd UILS National Client Counseling Competition was organized under the academic
leadership of Director, Professor Sangita Bhalla.
 

Press Release No.986
VP/SK