The University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill emerged as the national champion in the Law Student Division's 1998 Client Counseling Competition this March. Winning team members Gwenevelyn Anderson, Kristi Kessler and Harriett Smalls were advised by Professor Joseph Kennedy.

The other finalists in the competition were Nathan Mirocha and Michael Messersmith of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois, who were advised by Professor Howard Rubin; and husband-and-wife team Dathan and Margaret Voelter of Baylor University Law School in Waco, Texas, who were advised by Professor Patricia Wilson.

The purpose of the Client Counseling Competition is to emphasize the importance of preventive law and the need to train law students to be effective legal counselors. Each team of law students is presented with a simulated client problem or transaction. (This year's competition topic was landlord/tenant relations.) Acting as lawyers, the students interview the "client" and determine how they would proceed in the hypothetical situation. The students then meet with law students representing the other side to work out a mutually acceptable resolution.

This year, 100 teams from 89 American Bar Association-approved law schools participated in 11 regional competitions held in February. Eleven teams advanced to the national finals from the regional competitions. Three of the 11 teams that participated in the national finals' preliminary rounds on March 13 advanced to the final round the next day.

Fred B. Rothman and Co., Gould Publications and William S. Hein and Co. donated book prizes to the winning teams.