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Ready, set, negotiate: Competition takes law students
to England
by Joy Poliquin
Teamwork is key. That's the opinion of Paul
Brackstone and Lynn Jenkins, two first-year UVic law students
who finished third at this year's prestigious International
Negotiation Competition, held in England July 1013.
The UVic pair, who shared third place with
a team from the Republic of Ireland, were competing against
11 other student teams from around the world. In the competition,
a team of two law students representing a party/client negotiates
either a transaction or the resolution of a dispute with an
opposing team of two students.
"Teamwork is big," says Brackstone.
"The judges look to make sure you work well together.
We play off each other, there's confidence between us."
Jenkins and Brackstone won the local Fraser
Milner Casgrain ABA Negotiation Competition at UVic last fall,
and tied with the University of Ottawa for top Canadian team
at the Regional ABA Negotiation Competition, held in November.
Both teams represented Canada at this year's international
competition; the University of Ottawa claimed first place.
Brackstone and Jenkins first met in a class
and decided to join the UVic competition as a chance to get
involved with the school. And they won.
As a team they've improved their tactics
since their first competition. "Our strategy the first
time was to send Lynn in as the bad cop, and then I'd come
in and mop up the remains," jokes Brackstone. "That
wasn't really the strategy," laughs Jenkins. "But
that first time we went in quite hard in the first round,
and we didn't give the other team anything to work with."
Since then, their strategy has become more
focused. They learned in Calgary to aim for interest-based
negotiation. "Ultimately the result is better if both
sides can get what they want, as opposed to litigation where
one side wins and the other loses," says Brackstone.
Jenkins adds that there's no surefire way to prepare. "I
don't always know what I'm going to say or what direction
I'm going to take until I'm in competition," she says.
"You play off the other team."
The international competition was held at
the University of Kingston Law School near London.
Fraser Milner Casgrain, a national law firm,
and the UVic law school have sponsored the UVic competition
since its debut two years ago. The law firm sponsored the
two Canadian teams participating in the international competition.
Before leaving for England, Jenkins and
Brackstone said that, regardless of what happens at the competition,
they'll probably participate in the UVic competition next
year. "The finals may be in Jamaica," says Jenkins.
"That's a pretty nice incentive."
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