Competitions & Wins
Advocacy Competitions in Dispute Resolution
The Frank Evans Center, in conjunction with the Advocacy Program, manages and administers a number of regional, national, and international law student competitions with the concentration and focus on representing clients in a variety of dispute resolution methods. Under the supervision and coaching of faculty and alumni, students have competed in numerous competitions, both at home and abroad. Due to their rigorous practice schedules, students receive academic credit for participation on traveling teams. To be eligible to compete, students must try out at the ADR Intramural Tournament held annually in September.
Our teams have brought home 23 wins in recent years and an unprecedented number of appearances as finalists. The law school placed 4th in the nation on the American Bar Association’s 2021-22 Competition Champions list. The last several years have been fantastic for the ADR competition teams! Thank you to all who have helped South Texas Law teams have successful years.
South Texas Law teams participate in the following ADR competitions:
ABA Client Counseling Competition:
This ABA-sponsored competition involves a law office consultation with a potential client. The law students, acting as attorneys, are presented with a client matter and conduct an interview with the potential client.After gathering information, they counsel the client on how they would proceed further in the hypothetical case.This competition is hosted regionally in February each year.
ABA Negotiation Competition:
Also part of the ABA Law Student Division, in this competition, students practice legal negotiation in a variety of legal matters. The competition features two teams of co-counsel who negotiate a settlement of a legal matter on behalf of their respective clients. This competition is hosted regionally in November each year.
ABA Representation in Mediation Competition:
This ABA-sponsored competition involves the negotiation of a dispute in mediation. Students switch between the role of lawyer and client. This competition is hosted regionally in March each year.
Sports Law Negotiation Competition:
The annual National Sports Law Negotiation Competition is hosted and organized by the Center for Sports Law & Policy at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, every October. The fact patterns for the Competition are modeled toward current issues in the sports industry.Teams of student competitors negotiate fact patterns focus on issues such as contract negotiations, trading of players, salary demands, endorsement contracts, intellectual property, and more.
The Transatlantic Negotiation Competition:
This competition is sponsored by Syracuse Law School and Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland. The competition provides law students an opportunity to hone their negotiation and communication skills in a transnational setting, with particular emphasis on the importance of cross-cultural negotiation and communication. In each round of the competition, one team from the United States and one from Europe will face each other to negotiate. The winner and second place team will receive a cash prize.
The Energy Law Negotiation Competition (not being held in 2024)
The Energy Law Negotiation Competition provides students with an opportunity to develop their negotiation skills using hypothetical transactional-based fact patterns alongside actual lawsuits. This is also the only ADR competition of its kind where students have the opportunity to negotiate the settlement of a pending lawsuit using court documents.
In March 2022, the Evans Center welcomed students from 18 law schools for this competition: Brooklyn, Cardozo, Emory, George Washington, University of Colorado, University of Texas, University of Houston, University of Georgia, University of Oklahoma, University of Mississippi, Stetson, Chapman, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, LSU, Liberty, William and Mary, and UNC. The 2022 finalists were 1st place, Stetson; 2nd place, University of Houston; 3rd place, Texas Tech; 4th Place, Cardozo.
