NJCU Students Travel to Paris for Elite Mediation Contest

New Jersey City University partnered with Seton Hall Law School in Paris this month to compete in the 13th annual International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) International Commercial Mediation Competition. The team placed 24th and in the top 40 percent at what is considered to be the ICC’s largest educational event of the year.

A total of 66 specially selected schools, representing 32 countries, took part in the six-day competition, during which mediation was used as a means to resolve international commercial disputes. Preparing for this competition is rigorous. Students at NJCU and Seton Hall Law School invested more than a semester’s worth of class preparation, as well as time spent for out-of-class training, to get ready for the event.

NJCU student participants were Tatiana Kitaigorovski, Jason Castle, Jake Buck, and Bhaumil Patel, a Chirag Patel Scholar. David Weiss, Founder and Director of the Institute for Dispute Resolution at NJCU, and Seton Hall Law School Professor Maurice Q. Robinson, Esq., PHR, trained the team members and accompanied them to Paris.

The mediation competition  offers a rare opportunity for young, talented students and experienced professionals to forge relationships, build skills, and share best practices.

The students competed in about 150 mock mediation sessions that allowed them to put their classroom knowledge into practice and interact with some of the world’s top mediators, while challenging some of the best law and business schools from around the globe. The cases they handled were complicated and required a mastery of law and business, as well as effectively employing the mediation process to resolve disputes.

“These students represent some of the best future leaders our State has and this recognition exemplifies their efforts and character,” Weiss said.

The skills necessary to compete include techniques in active listening, client/counsel cooperation, presenting options and solutions, and working with the other disputing party to find ways to resolve their disputes rather than traditional pathways of adjudication in the court system or in arbitration.

State Assemblyman and NJCU alumnus Jamel Holley ’01 (D-Union) will formally recognize the students at a special ceremony in April as one of the few U.S. teams invited to the competition, as well as being the only team from New Jersey to attend. The students will also be honored for their efforts to promote law and business education.

Donors who supported the team included Connell Foley, LLC, Genova Burns, LLC, Dunn Lambert, LLC, Hon (ret) Deanne M. Wilson, Garabaldi Inns of Court, Law Office of Larry Lavigne, Esq., and the Hon (ret) Judge Raymond T. Lyons, as well as many others who support the Institute for Dispute Resolution (IDR) and its work.