“An excellent experience from start to finish”: Inside the Myers Moot Court Competition

20 April 2026

Patrick Quigley and Emma Worrall, from the Law Society of Ireland, won first place in the inaugural Myers Moot Court Competition. They reflect on their participation in this blog post.

Recently, we had the opportunity to compete in the Myers Moot Court Competition, an experience that challenged not only our legal knowledge, but also our ability to think on our feet, defend arguments under pressure, and engage with judges in real time.

When the Law Society emailed about an extracurricular moot court, we jumped at the opportunity as we always wanted to take part and challenge ourselves in a moot court and the topic—whistleblowing—caught our attention as it is an area one constantly hears about in the news.

Whistleblowing is an area of law that we do not learn about in college. It is an area of law that has been highly reported on in Ireland, particularly in recent years. The Myers Moot Court Competition gave us the opportunity to research this area.

When carrying out this research, the importance of the EU Whistleblowing Directive was made apparent to us. Engaging with the facts provided also made it apparent that there is still further work needed to ensure whistleblowers are fully protected. The competition also exposed us to the various rights that need to be balanced against whistleblower protection.

The case study we were given was detailed and challenging. It took a few days of solid reading and analysis before we settled on our approach. We decided that we would split the roles—Emma argued for the applicant, and Patrick took the respondent—which gave us both space to explore the problem from different perspectives.

Preparing for the moot pushed us into researching whistleblowing law and, more broadly, EU law and how it interacts with national legislation. Even though the case study was technical, we really enjoyed the process. It gave us a real insight into the structure and purpose of whistleblower protections, and it made us seriously consider exploring this area of law further. The EU dimension and how it relates to national law in this area particularly stood out to us, and it’s definitely something we’d like to study in more detail.

This competition has helped us refine skills that we will need in our careers going forward. Writing the written submissions has helped us develop our research skills, which are invaluable for trainee solicitors. We have also developed our advocacy skills. Having the opportunity to speak in the four courts was an incredible honour. It was also a great opportunity to get feedback from the judges.

The Myers Moot Court competition was a great experience where we had the opportunity to compete against eight teams from across Europe. It was an honour to speak in the four courts in front of such an esteemed panel of judges.

The competition day was exceptionally well organised. From being able to compete in the Four Courts in front of EU law practicing barristers and having qualified judges preside over the final, to the overall structure, everything ran smoothly and professionally. It was an excellent experience from start to finish.

Overall, the moot was both challenging and rewarding, and it opened our eyes to areas of law we’d be very interested in pursuing in the future. The experience reinforced just how important preparation, clarity, and confidence are in effective legal advocacy.