Churchill Banks helps Helsinki Law students with their communication skills

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (moot is a fictitious legal dispute), is the largest and most prestigious law competition in the world. Held annually in both Vienna and Hong Kong, the 2014 competition hosted over 430 law schools from over 55 countries.

Lars Mulà, head trainer at Churchill Banks has been a finalist in the competition in 2001, assisted coaching the Australian Griffith University team and is also invited annually to judge the competition in Vienna. Now living in Finland, Lars wanted to make a positive contribution to the Helsinki University team.

“Australians and other Anglo-Saxon teams have been traditionally very successful in the oral parts of the competition. That has nothing to do with legal training or legal preparation. Instead it is primarily because our Common Law legal systems require us to “present” ourselves, debate and argue to an audience constantly. Even from the time we are small kids we grow up with doing presentations in front of class on a regular basis. These skills can all be learned”.

For the Helsinki University Team comprising of 7 Students, Lars undertook the task of improving their presentation, negotiation and persuasion skills for the competition.

Over approximately 20 hours of sessions, the program included:

1. Confidence Building – The initial dilemma was to get the students more comfortable, confident and relaxed in a presentation setting (which is really a performance if you think about it). With the help of a qualified drama and performing art teacher a 4 hour session was put together to put the students “out of their comfort zones”.

2. Persuasion through Body Language – A major area which is commonly ignored in a presentation or negotiation is body language. Here the theories of body language were explained and practiced including many small details such as posture (both seated and standing), hand gestures, voice projection and intonation.

3. Team Work Sessions – the image of team cohesion in the competition was also critical.

4. Creating a Winner Mind Set – here techniques methods of goal visioning, relaxation and meditation were taught to the students.

5. Owning the content, owning the audience and owning the room – the final element was to practice the presentations in as many different scenarios as possible. It is one thing to have perfect arguments or written outlines on paper and it is another to be able to deliver them. The majority of all gifted speakers have had years of training and coaching.