Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, September 2003 (Vol. 32, No. 1)

Fordham University Takes First Place in Negotiation Competition

Cora MacLean and Amanda Schaffer, second-year students at Fordham University School of Law, captured the national title in the 2002-03 ABA Law Student Division Negotiation Competition. The winners credit their success to the training they received in alternative dispute resolution at Fordham.

"Some teams tried to negotiate through intimidation," Schaffer says. "We won because we were able to think of creative solutions in every round. We really tried to understand the other side's issues and get at the heart of the problem."

The competition, one of three national contests sponsored by the Law Student Division each year, stresses the importance of negotiations in resolving disputes and structuring transactions. Opposing teams of students from across the country perform as lawyers and negotiate a mutually acceptable resolution to a client problem or transaction. The final rounds took place in Seattle during the ABA Midyear Meeting in February.

This year's topic, entertainment law, gave rise to multiple issues that spilled over into other areas of law. The team's final problem involved a major movie studio that was shooting a film. "An extra on the set took a photo and sold it to the tabloids," MacLean says. "It was a challenging problem to work out."

MacLean explains that one of the worst things a team could do was to turn the situation into an argument. "The judges want to know you can relate to your opponents," she says. "Thinking outside of the box is really important."

Todd Denison and Malin Stearns from the University of Montana School of Law took second place. Denison says that making it to the finalist round was an honor. The first-place team went on to represent the United States at the International Bar Association negotiation competition in Calgary last summer.

Kenneth Gorton
Kenneth Gorton, a 2L at Pepperdine University, is Student Lawyer's student editor.

How to Enter the 2003-04 Competitions