Competition Date: Saturday, November 16
8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in-person at the School of Law.
Deadline to Register: Wednesday, October 9.
UB School of Law’s “Representation in Mediation Competition” is a great practical learning experience for law students regarding a skill that lawyers use daily probably more than all other skills: Negotiation. This Competition’s popularity among students and lawyers in our community has grown over the last several years – we usually have between 40 and 50 law student competitors with up to 70 lawyer volunteers! Because an increasing number of civil legal cases are required to go to mediation by the courts, or mediation is agreed to by both sides of a legal dispute, it is vital that the lawyer accompanying their client to the mediation table has the knowledge and skill-set necessary to maximize the client’s results in this context. This Competition is great practice for future lawyers to hone their attorney advocacy and negotiation skills in a mediation setting. The interaction between lawyer and client and the use of interest-based problem solving is the focus of the Representation in Mediation Competition.
Participation is limited to 2nd and 3rd year law students. However, 1st year students can get a hands-on learning opportunity by assisting the volunteer lawyers in each mediation session with the session rules and timing. All students are encouraged to contact one of the student ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Society officers (listed below) for more information!
The Competition requires teams of 2 law students - 1 playing the role of the attorney and 1 playing the role of the client. There are two rounds – each team member must play the role of the lawyer in one round and the client in the other round. The teams are given two short fact patterns (a different one for each round) 2 to 3 weeks prior to the Competition. Teams then strategize and prepare to negotiate during the two mediation sessions.
On the day of the Competition, the teams engage in negotiations with an opposing attorney-client team, facilitated by a professional mediator from the community. Three lawyers and/or other professionals with mediation advocacy knowledge are present to score the rounds and give feedback to the teams.
Competitors are judged on preparation, teamwork, how well the interests of the client are represented, how well the mediation process is used to promote those interests, and other elements of effective attorney advocacy in mediation as set forth in ABA scoring criteria. Our Competition will also follow the ABA Representation in Mediation Competition rules. We will go over the rules at the informational meeting on the morning of October 12th (see below).
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There are further travel and competition opportunities after the Intramural Competition!
The two winning teams will have the opportunity to compete at either at the ABA Regional Representation in Mediation Competition in February 2025 or at the NYSBA Mediation Competition in mid-March 2025. If one of our teams wins the ABA Regionals, that team will compete in the ABA National Competition in late March 2025. We have won the Regionals twice in the past, allowing us to be one of only ten teams in the US to compete in the Nationals! Whether or not you win or place in our Intramural Competition, participation alone qualifies you to apply to represent our team in person at any International Competition in which we compete (for example, we have competed in-person in Vienna, Austria and Paris, France, and virtually in Goa, India).
Participation in this Competition is also one of the requirements to obtain a training Certificate in Mediation from our law school allowing you to mediate basic cases in the NYS Court System (ask the ADR officers or Prof. Sugarman for more details on this if interested).
If you are NOT taking the one-credit Advocacy in Mediation Course (referenced below), late team registrations to participate in the Competition sent directly to Professor Sugarman MAY be considered.
Participating in this manner involves:
STEP 1: By Wednesday, October 9th, sign up for the Competition itself with a partner as a team by filling out and submitting a registration form.
By submitting a registration form with both team members’ names on it, you must honor this commitment to prepare and fully compete in good faith all day on Saturday, November 16th.
If one team member takes the one-credit Advocacy in Mediation course and the other team member decides not to take the course, this is perfectly fine—the team can still fully participate in the Competition. Students that participated in the Competition last year are welcome to do so again this year (although you can only get credit for the 1-credit course once)!
If you do not have a partner for the Competition, but would like to participate, submit your registration form with just your name on it for now, and clearly and prominently indicate on the form that you need a partner. While we cannot guarantee that we can find you a partner, we will try to randomly pair you with another student that submits a registration form that indicates the need for a partner. Students must have a partner to compete with in the Competition to earn credit for this course.
In the event we have too many registrants to accommodate in the Competition, students taking the one-credit course and third-year law students with partners would have preference, and second-year law students not taking the course would be chosen by lottery.
STEP 2: Register for the 1 credit course with the Registrar by Wednesday, October 9th.
STEP 3: Attend two mandatory classes in advance of the Competition (Class One: Saturday, October 12th from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (the first part of which is a Competition informational session) and Class Two: on Saturday, November 2nd from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m). There will be required articles to read regarding effective mediation advocacy as part of the course, a quiz on the readings, and some written exercises to be done between the classes. You will be provided a mediation advocacy video after the second class to review and analyze.
STEP 4: You will be sent the two short fact patterns with further instructions 2-3 weeks before the Competition.
STEP 5: Participate in the Representation in Mediation Competition on November 16th (you will be notified of the schedule of the day in the future, but for now assume you will be at the law school from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.).
STEP 6: On Sunday, November 17th, meet for a mandatory 90 minute virtual class for debriefing and discussing what you learned from the Competition experience—the time of this class would be at a time mutually convenient to agreed to in advance at a mutually agreeable time on the 19th.
STEP 7: Write a five-page reflective paper on the Competition experience and what you learned about effective client advocacy at the mediation table (and integrating concepts from the required readings). This paper is due within 2 weeks after the Competition.
If you have already received course credit last year, you may not do so again, but you CAN still fully participate in the Competition even if you competed last year (see Option 2 below).
STEP 1: By Wednesday, October 9th, sign up for the Competition itself with a partner as a team by filling out and submitting a registration form.
By submitting a registration form with both team members’ names on it, you must honor this commitment to prepare and fully compete in good faith all day on Saturday, November 16th.
If one team member takes the one-credit Advocacy in Mediation course and the other team member decides not to take the course, this is perfectly fine—the team can still fully participate in the Competition. Students that participated in the Competition last year are welcome to do so again this year (although you can only get credit for the 1-credit course once)!
If you do not have a partner for the Competition, but would like to participate, submit your registration form with just your name on it for now, and clearly and prominently indicate on the form that you need a partner. While we cannot guarantee that we can find you a partner, we will try to randomly pair you with another student that submits a registration form that indicates the need for a partner.
In the event we have too many registrants to accommodate in the Competition, students taking the one-credit course and third-year law students with partners would have preference, and second-year law students not taking the 1-credit course would be chosen by lottery.
STEP 2: Attend the Competition informational session during the first portion of the Advocacy in Mediation class on Saturday, October 12th from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (full class goes until 1:30 p.m. if taking the one credit course referenced above). Even though you are not taking the 1 credit course, the attendance of your team at this informational session is mandatory for your team to compete (unless you have special permission from Professor Sugarman for neither teammate or only one teammate to attend—sometimes allowed if both teammates competed last year; if out of town, virtual attendance may be permitted with prior permission).
STEP 3: You will be sent the two short fact patterns with further instruction 2 to 3 weeks before the Competition. You and your teammate will then effectively prepare in the weeks leading up to the Competition.
STEP 4: Participate in the Representation in Mediation Competition on November 16th (you will be notified of the schedule of the day in the future, but for now assume you will be at the law school from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.).
If there are any questions or concerns, please contact:
ADR Society Student Leaders
President: Katharine England (kaenglan@buffalo.edu)
Vice President: Jonah Weiss (jonahwei@buffalo.edu)
Secretary: Andrew Cegielski (ajcegiel@buffalo.edu)
Treasurer: Ciara Harrington (ciarahar@buffalo.edu)
Advisor: Prof. Steve Sugarman (sugarmanmediate@gmail.com)
Associate Director of the Advocacy Institute: Dawn Skopinski (law-advocacy@buffalo.edu)