The Michigan State University College of Law Negotiation Team took second place in the American Bar Association Law Student Division’s 2012–13 Negotiation Competition national event, held in Dallas Feb. 9-10.
Third-year student Anthony Chester and second-year student Lauren Prew placed second out of 24 teams competing in the national competition.
“With 10 regions and 200 schools competing in the regional tournaments nationwide, this is a major accomplishment, especially considering that most schools also hold an intra-school competition to determine who will represent their schools at the regional competition,” said MSU Law Assistant Clinical Professor Brian Pappas, who coached the team and believes this was the toughest competition to win.
In the competition, teams of two negotiate for 50 minutes. Throughout the seven regional and national rounds, Chester and Prew never lost to any team they directly faced. They previously won the Region 6 competition held in November in Lansing.
“The Alternative Dispute Resolution Program would like to thank professors Bruce Bean, Clifton Haley and Mary Bedikian, and also students Lissa Oshei, Stefanie Lacy, Kyle Sandefur, Aaron Simonson, Courtney Lyman and Eric Pender, for assisting with our practice rounds,” Pappas said.
Pappas attributes the team’s success to excellent teamwork, superior communications skills and dedicated planning.
“This was a very special team, and I am very proud of how they represented Michigan State Law,” he said.