New Zealand Law Students' Association

The New Zealand Law Students' Association / Te Roopu Tauira Ture o Aotearoa (NZLSA) is the overarching representative body for law students in New Zealand. The members of the NZLSA are the Law Students' Societies (LSSs) of each New Zealand law school, along with individual New Zealand law students (as student members).

The main operational organ of the NZLSA is the Council, which consists of the President of each LSS, along with an Executive (consisting of the NZLSA President, the Administrative Vice-President, the Education Vice-President, the Competitions Vice-President and the Treasurer).

The Primary goals of the NZLSA are:

• to facilitate communication, the exchange of IDeaS, and collegiality between LSSs and law students;
• to provide opportunities for New Zealand law students (such as the opportunity to compete in the NZLSA competitions); and
• to represent law students' interests in external fora (such as the Council of Legal Education).

Members

The Current Members of the NZLSA are:

• The Auckland University Law Students' Society (AULSS)
• The Waikato University Law Students' Association (WULSA)
• The Victoria University of Wellington Law Students' Society (VUWLSS)
• The University of Canterbury Law Students' Society (LAWSOC)
• The Society of Otago University Law Students (SOULS)

At the September 2010 Council meeting of the NZLSA in Dunedin, the AUT Law Students' Society (AUTLAWSS) confirmed its intention to affiliate to the NZLSA and become a Member in January 2011.

NZLSA Conference

Each year the NZLSA holds its annual conference at a different New Zealand law school. The right to host the conference is rotated equally amongst the law schools, with the host LSS taking responsibility for the conference.

While the majority of conference delegates are competitors in the National Championships of the NZLSA competitions, the conference also hosts Council members, incoming Presidents of the LSSs and general delegates. The 2010 conference, hosted by SOULS and the University of Otago, was the first NZLSA conference to welcome general delegates from Australia and from the AUT Law Students' Society (AUTLAWSS).

NZLSA Competitions

One of the core functions of the NZLSA is to facilitate the regular legal skills competitions that are offered to students in each law school (with the LSS winners representing their university at the National Championships). The current competitions are the NZLSA Bell Gully Mooting Competition, the NZLSA Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Witness Examination Competition, the Russell McVeagh Client Interviewing Competition, and the Buddle Findlay Negotiation Competition.

NZLSA Councils