November 16, 2005
Thomas Jefferson School of Law Students Dominate Other Law Schools At Recent ABA Competitions
The two-student team of Kimberly McCabe and Eric Overholt advanced to the final round with a perfect score and finished in first place at the Western Regional Negotiation Competition held at the University of San Diego. As the Western Region champions they will now advance to the ABA national competition in Chicago this spring.
Only one point behind, the Thomas Jefferson team of Chris Sove and Steve Howland took second place and may advance to the national competition. The third team from Thomas Jefferson, Colleen Carson and Sabrina Stuart, took sixth in a field of 24 teams. The teams competed in three rounds on the subjects of employment and contract law against other ABA-accredited law schools in California, Utah, Colorado and Nevada. A Thomas Jefferson team won the same regional competition two years ago.
I was delighted with the teams’ performance and look forward to the competition in Chicago next year, said Paul Spiegelman, the teams’ advisor and adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, whose teams have an impressive record overall in recent years, with many first and second place finishes.
The four-student team of Ann Diepenbrock, Lisa Dorneker, Adam Eberts and Alyssa McCorkle placed first in the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law annual Trial Advocacy Competition the previous weekend at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles. The Thomas Jefferson team of Hawlee Larson, John Perroni, Jason Schmidt, and John Stobart also presented strong cases at the competition.
It was thrilling to compete against such a competitive Chapman team and to still take away the victory, said Diepenbrock. It was a true battle.
The teams, coached by Mock Trial Director Jane Siegel and assistant Alexandra O’Neill, had less than three weeks to prepare both sides of a wrongful termination case. At the competition each team put on two mock trials, which allowed each student to play the roles of both advocates and witnesses.
Dean Rudy Hasl said, These students exemplify the caliber of students at Thomas Jefferson. I congratulate these teams for representing our law school well.
Over the past three years, the ADR Team has blossomed from the commitment of Professor Colin Crawford to field a team in the State Bar Environmental Negotiation Competiton, to a comprehensive program involving both an ADR team which competes regionally and nationally with a remarkable record of consistent success and an ADR Society sanctioned by the ABA which puts on educational programs at the school and sponsors student participation in ABA and other ADR conferences. The ADR team's performance over the past three years has been truly remarkable: it has reached the finals of eight of nine state, regional or national law student competitions over the last there years including national runner up in 2004 (decided on a tie-breaker) All told in this three-year period the team has had two first-place, five second place and one fourth-place finishes in nine competitons over the past three years.
The success of team has generated considerable interest and enthusiasm in the school for ADR. The team has doubled in size from about a dozen students to over twenty four. This year we have had a returning alumnus, Shawn Huston, acts as alumni coach of the team and participates in weekly team meetings, additional practices and travel with team to competitions.This year's team president, Mark Doyle, has indicated an interest in continuing the tradition of an active alumni coach.
In recoginition of our first-place finish in 2004 ABA regional negotiation competition, we hosted the ABA Regional Negotiation Competition last November. With able help from the adminsitration members of the ADR team and society handled the event beautifully, recruiting judges, providing hospitatlity and making sure that the two-day competition ran smoothly and efficiently. Their work won lavish praise from the paritipcants as the best-run competition teams had been at.
What is most impressive has been the degree to which this organization has grown from the brain child of Professor Crawford to a student run organization in which students are making the decisions, coaching each other, asking for help from faculty and members of the community and maintaining active contact with recent alumni. Faculty Advisor Professor Spiegelman has made it the hallmark of his relationship with the team to provide assistance and guidance, but to make sure that students take the responsibility for the organization. He considers the way students have assumed and maintained this responsiblily as perhaps the team's greatest accomplishment.
List of Competition Accomplishments over the past three years: State Bar Environmental Negotiation Competition:
2004, First;
2002, 2003 Second;
2005 Sixth
ABA Regional Negotiation Competition:
2003: First;
2004 Fourth;
2005 1st, 2nd and 6th
ABA National Negotiation Competiiton:
2004 Runner up
ABA Representation in Mediation Competition:
2004, 2005, Second