The Eighth Annual National Representation in Mediation Competition was held in conjunction with the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. on April 25-27, 2007. In this competition law student teams role-play as attorneys and clients to model appropriate preparation for and representation of a client in mediation.

Many law schools held intramural competitions to determine which team or teams to send to their Regional Competition, then ninety-five teams from forty-nine schools competed in ten Regional Competitions for the right to advance to the National Finals. Ten teams were invited to compete at the National Competition consisting of students representing the following schools: American University Washington College of Law, Tulane Law School, University of California, Hastings College of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, Stetson University College of Law, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, Fordham University School of Law, Marquette University Law School, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, and the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

After two preliminary rounds on April 25th and 26th the teams from American, Fordham, Ohio State, and Hastings advanced to the Semi-Final Round. The teams from Ohio State and Hastings advanced to the Championship Round where Hastings students Angela Nalu and Ashley Eckerle defeated Ohio State students Lauralynn Drongowski and Catherine Woltering in an extremely close round.

The Section of Dispute Resolution would like to thank and congratulate the students and schools who competed at all levels of the Competition this year for their excellent performances in making this year’s event a success. The Section also extends its thanks to the numerous conference attendees and local practitioners who volunteered as mediators and judges for the competition.

The Ninth Annual Representation in Mediation Regional Competitions are scheduled for February and March of 2008. The Finals will be held in conjunction with the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference in April 2008 in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit the Representation in Mediation Competition website at http://www.abanet.org/dispute/mediationcomp.html.