Law School team awarded for creativity

The competition, run by the International Chamber of Commerce, requires students to resolve complex cross-border business disputes through mediation. A total of 65 university teams from more than 30 countries gathered in Paris to work with top international commercial mediators during 147 rigorous and fast-paced mock mediation sessions over six days.

Students are required to represent one party in each dispute, quickly develop a theory of the case, analyse the client’s core interests, objectives and alternatives and then execute a realistic negotiation strategy in the mediation itself.

The Auckland Law School team of Matthew Jackson, Rima Shenoy, Tunisia Napia and Victor Liu, together with coaches Stephanie Panzic and Ana Lenard faced off against teams from Brazil, the USA, China and Georgia.

The first round, against Universidade Presbiteriana MacKenzie from Brazil involved a breach of contract between an aid organisation and a food supply company, following a refugee crisis.

The second round was against Mitchell Hamline School of Law from the US and was an intellectual property dispute between Formula X (a hybrid car version of Formula 1) teams.

The third round was against Shanghai University of Political Sciences and Law from China, concerning the termination of a building contract for a milk product factory, following defective work.

The final round found the team working with New Vision University of Georgia to produce the next big “Follywood” blockbuster.

The team was pleased to win a Special Award and to see a strong showing from Australasia, with the University of New South Wales winning the competition.

Thanks go to the local mediators, practitioners and past team members who generously worked with the team over summer: Warren Sowerby, Miriam Dean QC, Anna Quinn, Mark Kelly, Barbara McCulloch, Nina Khouri, Martin Smith, Sam McMullan, Ariana Stuart, Joe Bergin, Alice Wang, Andrew Lee and Antonio Bradley.