WANTED: AT LEAST ONE MORE TEAM FOR REPRESENTATION IN MEDIATION COMPETITION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST

[AdvocacyInstitute]

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED IF INTERESTED!

There is no requirement that students have any education or background in mediation or negotiation to participate in the Competition. We already have a full roster of teams, but may take more if there are more applications by Friday, November 13, 2020.

21st Annual (and FIRST VIRTUAL) Representation in Mediation Competition

UB Law School’s “Representation in Mediation Competition” is a great experience for law students. Its popularity among students has grown considerably over the last several years (last year we had 52 student competitors and 68 lawyer volunteers). This year’s competition will be held on Saturday, November 21st. Because the Competition is virtual this year, we are not yet certain of the time periods for which you should make yourselves available, so reserve the whole day for now between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Participation is limited to 2nd and 3rd year law students. But we need the help of many 1st year students to help run the Competition by assisting the volunteer lawyers in each mediation session with the technology, the timing and the rules (and learn how the Competition works for your own participation next year). So 1Ls are encouraged to contact one of the student ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Society officers (listed below) if they can help!

As an increasing number of civil legal cases are referred to mediation, it is vital that the lawyer accompanying his or her client to the mediation table has the knowledge and skill-set necessary to maximize a client’s results in this context. As most real-world mediations are currently occurring virtually, the virtual nature of our Competition this year will be great practice for future lawyers to hone their attorney advocacy skills in a virtual setting. The interaction between lawyer and client and the use of interest-based problem solving is the focus of the Representation in Mediation Competition.

The Competition consists of two rounds. All students, mediators, and judges will participate virtually via Zoom. Law students form attorney-client teams and are given two short fact patterns approximately two weeks prior to the competition. The scenarios are distributed by the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association (“ABA”). Teams then strategize and prepare to negotiate during the two mediation sessions. On the day of the Competition, the teams engage in negotiations with an opposing attorney-client team, facilitated by a professional mediator from the community. Three or more lawyers and/or other professionals with mediation advocacy knowledge are present to score the rounds and give feedback to the teams. The students are judged on preparation, teamwork, how well the interests of the client are represented, how well the mediation process is used to promote those interests, and other elements of effective attorney advocacy in mediation. The student’s use of technology in advocating for their clients may also be a scoring factor.

Please note, our competition will follow the ABA 2020-2021 mediation competition rules found at the following ABA link:
https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam ... -rules.pdf

The two winning teams will represent our law school at the ABA Regional Representation in Mediation Competition in March 2021. If one of our teams wins the Regionals, that team will compete virtually in the ABA National Competition in April 2021. 4 years ago, we won the Regionals and were one of ten teams to compete in the Nationals!

TO SIGN UP:
Fill out and submit the registration form found at http://www.law.buffalo.edu/beyond/compe ... ation.html

By submitting a registration form with both team members’ names on it, you are promising that you are both going to follow through with this commitment to prepare and fully compete in good faith all day on Saturday, November 21st. We are only accepting a limited number of teams. If you are accepted, we will immediately assign you your fact pattern. Please realize that by signing up late, other teams have already had the fact patterns since Friday, November 6th, so they theoretically have an advantage in more preparation time (if they started preparing yet).

If there are any questions or concerns on anything in this Notice, please contact one of the co-presidents of the ADR Society: Mel Whyman mdwhyman@buffalo.edu and April VanOrman aprilvan@buffalo.edu, or email the Advocacy Center at law-advocacy@buffalo.edu or Professor Sugarman at stevesug@buffalo.edu