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In This Issue:
FEATURES
Room for Improvement
Civil Law?
Make Law, Not War
Running to Class, Running for Office
DEPARTMENTS
Officially Speaking
Hot Practice
Jobs
Letters
Briefly
Online
Coping
Opinion
DIVISION DIALOGUE
Meet New Faces in the LSD Leadership
Become a National Student Leader
ABA Section of Antitrust Law Student Writing Competition
Guidelines for Candidates for the Law Student Division’s 2000-01 National Offices of Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary-Treasurer
Learning to Get Along After a Tragedy
Get Funding for Your Public Service Project
Native Americans Join Law Student Division Board of Governors
Newspaper Awards—Read All About ‘Em
Beat the High Cost of Health Care With the Law Student Division
Competitions Hone Law Students’ Counseling, Negotiation Skills
Competition Deadlines Loom
Spotlight: Native American Law Student Encourages Future Generations
September 1999—Vol. 28, No. 1Competitions Hone Law Students’ Counseling, Negotiation Skills
Who says law students have to spend all of their days poring over musty old tomes in their schools’ libraries?
Students joining the Law Student Division’s 1998-99 Negotiation and Client Counseling Competitions saw the more interesting side of their studies as they matched wits against competitors from across the country.
Negotiation
Southern Methodist University School of Law led the way in the Division’s Negotiation Competition, with team members Clay Stribling and Tisha Ghormley capturing first place at the finals held Feb. 6-7 in Los Angeles. Steven War and Andre Regard from Georgetown University Law Center took second place.
The Negotiation Competition emphasizes the importance of alternative dispute resolution. Opposing teams of lawyers, portrayed by law students, must arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution to a problem within a limited amount of time. This year, students grappled with the difficult and timely question of tobacco litigation.
Client Counseling
In the Division’s Client Counseling Competition, held March 12-13 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., first place went to Jennifer Fust and Robin Johnson of the University of Louisville School of Law. That team went on in April to represent the United States at the International Client Counseling Competition hosted by John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
A record number of 102 teams competed this year, representing 85 law schools. After regional contests were held in February, 12 teams advanced to the finals. Shayla Reed and Dan Fischer of the University of Nebraska College of Law came in a close second.
The Client Counseling Competition emphasizes the importance of preventive law and the need to train law students to be effective legal counselors. The competition simulates a law office consultation and presents a client problem to law students acting as lawyers. Students in the 1998-99 contest faced a different problem in criminal law each time they entered the "office."
The Negotiation and Client Counseling Competitions are sponsored by the Law Student Division in cooperation with the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division. •