Law The ICC Competition Paris February 2014

The Team  This year's competition, held from 7 to 12 February 2014, was the first time that Monash University had entered.  The Team - The four students, Tessa Sullivan, Jemima Roe, Joanna Paul, and Julia Larner were accompanied by their two coaches, Naomi Burstyner and Wendy Gaddie (both senior researchers at ACJI).  The outcomes….  A wonderful experience and……  The Team won silver overall.  The Team won a special award for Best Mediation Advocacy.  The Team won a special award for Best Mediation Plan. 2

About the ICC Competition..  The ICC competition is an application of skills for managing conflict in mediation of commercial disputes consisting of teams from law and business schools worldwide.  It is attended by over 500 participants from more than 40 countries including 66 university teams selected after competitive entry and 120 world leading commercial mediators and corporate representatives.

About the competition…  The competition takes place over 6 days with over 200 mock mediation sessions and includes numerous training programmes and social events.  The event is unique in that students do not compete as mediators but rather as lawyers negotiating and counselling their clients through a mediation session.  Students are judged based on their ability to work collaboratively with the other party while maintaining their client’s interests and negotiating the best settlement for their client.

What happened…..  What is the competition about? What does preparation involve?  What part was the hardest?  What did you like best?  What impact do you think the experience will have on you? 20 March 20141WINNING IN MEDIATION5

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The experience… The ICC Mediation competition was an absolute highlight of my law degree. The experience built my confidence exponentially in relation to engaging in global professional and social forums in my future career. The feedback of competition judges was always constructive and there was always something new to learn, by virtue of their vast experience and diverse professional and cultural backgrounds. Where else is there an opportunity like this to soak up such international wisdom through personal as well as group feedback?

The Experience… One of the factors that I think contributed to our team’s success in the competition was our preparedness as a first-timer university to remain flexible and adapt our approach to problems in accordance with the feedback of each and every judge. The wealth of experience present at the ICC mediation competition makes even the queue for the bathroom a place for intriguing conversation about the future of mediation practice.

The Experience…  As this was the first time Monash had fielded a team I think we all went wanting to just soak up the environment and learn as much as we could.  As a team we took a very collaborative approach, swapping partners and pairings constantly to make sure we all had as much exposure to the competition as we could. This surprised several of the more strategic competitors, and several of the judges and mediators!  I think an unintended consequence was that we came to each problem fresh and with very limited pre concieved ideas as to how it would run, and that this served us very well.

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The Experience….  For me the biggest shift was an internalising of the process. It may sound trite, but by trusting in the process and focusing on the problem we avoided prosecuting the people or retreating to positions.  By staying open, engaged and very present we were able to genuinely hear the other side and respond effectively and creatively to their interests, whilst always ensuring our client's interests were protected. 'Iron gloves in velvet fists' as one judge commented. In a strange way having such a strong adherence to the process was very liberating. And it certainly worked!

The Experience..  The ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition has been a significant highlight of my university experience so far.  The week was intense but really enjoyable and everyone from the ICC went out of their way to make us feel welcome.  My communication skills have improved immensely and I now have an international network of friends and future colleagues who I very much look forward to working with.

The Experience I had to pinch myself everyday because the ICC pulled out all stops to make the event exciting, invigorating and truly memorable. The locations were magnificent, the staff supportive and enthusiastic and everything ran like clockwork. The competitors were diverse, varied and from all walks of life, which brought a welcoming aspect to the mediations. The ICC also really nurtured this through their encouragement of social interaction. This was one of the most surprising - but absolutely wonderful - parts of the mediation sessions as it created an open and trusting forum, which is at the heart of our practice.

The Experience.. The coaches were impressive in their dedication and loyalty to their students. They took on many roles beyond the competition such as parent, confidant, teacher and friend.

The Experience… The ICC Competition was an exciting first time opportunity for Monash University. In a competitive environment and faced with complex commercial problems, our students demonstrated their highly developed skills in working collaboratively and negotiating to reach agreements in the context of a realistic mediation setting. It was a steady learning journey in both preparing for, and competing during, the Competition. We are confident that our students will continue their journey and make exceptional mediators in the future.

The Experience.. The most valuable thing we’ve got out of this competition is being involved on an international scale with some of the most prestigious professionals in our field, and being able to take away valuable words of wisdom from around the world.

The Experience.. The ICC competition was a lesson in diversity. Each mediator, judge, student and coach had their own approach to both the facts and the process of negotiating effectively in the mediation setting. It proved that the rich and diverse setting and contributions from all involved, did not serve to dilute the learning experience, rather, it served to intensify it. Competing students' ability to distil their own values and approach from the advice and learnings that surrounded them, was a most important attribute in succeeding in the competition, and, no doubt, in real life mediations.

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