Nottingham Law School student team secures “Best Mediation Advocacy” award at the International Chamber of Commerce International Commercial Mediation Competition 2021
Published: 18/02/2021
The team comprising of final year LLB Law students Blessing Iheanacho-Emenike, Beth Eady and Giorgia Zollino and second year LLB Law student, Jorge Kemp were very happy that all their efforts and hard work was recognised by the judges at this year’s competition.
The students started their initial preparations for the competition from early December with coaching from Nottingham Law School lecturers Andrii Zharikov and Megan Shirley.
As Jorge recollects: “There was a lot of work to do in the build-up to the competition itself: organising meetings for preparation, drafting mediation plans, distributing roles, developing strategies and practising our opening statements”. Beth admits that due to the absence of any prior experience of this kind of competition she “definitely experienced some nerves when learning that we would be meeting mediators, students and lawyers from across the world”. Nonetheless, as Giorgia puts it: “when the time finally arrived, we felt prepared and excited to present what we had planned as a team”.
The team performed strongly in four rounds of complex commercial dispute scenarios where they competed against Loyola Law School (USA), Wuhan University (China), Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (Sri Lanka) and the University of Sao Paolo (Brazil). Each mediation session was different from the previous one and represented unique challenges for the students.
Despite not progressing to the final rounds of the competition, the judges recognised the effectiveness of the mediation skills and persuasive performance showed by the Nottingham Trent University team.
The overall participation in the competition was described by our students as “absolutely incredible”, “highly enriching” and “a gratifying experience”. All members of the team enjoyed the sense of team spirit and camaraderie throughout the competition, so when the last scenario was finally over the team “felt relieved, but slightly disappointed that the competition went by so fast”. All team members are grateful for the support of Nottingham Law School and encourage fellow students to take part in future similar competitions.
Find out more about the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition