Budding lawyers have the opportunity to get a taste of the courtroom in a New Zealand wide mooting competition.

Secondary school students can take part in the University of Waikato's Secondary Schools' Mooting Competition, with preliminary rounds starting on Monday, May 23.

From left: Judge Melanie Harland, winners Matthew Handford, Samuel Turnbull and Jacob Cheatley from Hamilton Boys' High School, and Director of McCaw Lewis Lawyers Brendan Cullen. Photo: Supplied

A moot is a legal debate in a courtroom setting with a judge or a panel of judges, over an area of uncertainty in the law.

Students get to work on real cases and decide how to apply their argument to an area of uncertainty in the law, and then present their case to a panel of judges and an opposing team.

Diana Maliseva, administrative assistant for the Te Piringa - Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato, says they would like as many schools as possible to participate.

'Traditionally we have had a good representation from schools in Bay of Plenty. This year registrations come as far as Kaitaia in the north and Invercargill in the south.”

Last year Hamilton Boys' High School won the competition by a small margin, competing against Francis Douglas Memorial College from New Plymouth.

Competition co-ordinator Cheryl Green from Te Piringa - Faculty of Law says the competition helps students develop legal reasoning, the principles of legal research, learn the process of litigation and courtroom etiquette and procedures.

Registrations for this year's competition are open teams from any New Zealand high school, and close Friday, March 11.

For more information visit: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/news-events/secondary_schools_mooting