On Friday November 10th four teams competed in the second annual Bankruptcy+: A Blended Counseling Competition. Julianna Simpson took home first place in the competition which brought together Maryland Carey Law students with alumni and practitioner volunteers to offer students a law school experience like no other.
Unlike other experiential simulations, the Bankruptcy+ Competition scores students on their counseling skills as they guide a client (played by a volunteer bankruptcy practitioner) through a complicated legal scenario centering on bankruptcy but coinciding with one or more other substantive areas of law. This year’s scenario centered on the fictional Potoski Sausage Company and had students consider secured debt, a shareholder dispute, and potential criminal liability among other issues.
This is the second year that the Business Law Program has held the Bankruptcy+ Competition and the feedback from all participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Competition organizer and Managing Director of the Business Law Program Heather Terech adds: “Client counseling is an important part of being a successful lawyer. Luckily our wonderful volunteers agree and generously donate their time to help our students practice this integral, and often overlooked, skill.”
The students performed wonderfully. The judges were all impressed by the students’ efforts and congratulated them on their performances. After a delightful morning of competition, the event concluded with a luncheon where awards were conferred and volunteers and students discussed the competition, the bankruptcy bar, and other hot topics in Bankruptcy Law.
In addition to continuing the Bankruptcy+ competition, the Business Law Program is also planning to add an in-house transactional skills competition to offer students multiple extracurricular opportunities to enhance their business law skills.
Thank you to our student participants:
|
Julianna Simpson |
Jeremy "Jem" Ponn |
Adrienne Fernandez |
|
Bianca Iorga |
Idean Marvastian |
Henry Rood |
|
Ronald Li |
And a very special thank you to our volunteers:
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Jodie Buchman |
Joe Selba |
Lisa Stevens |
|
David Tayman |
Jolene Wee |
Bekah Paradis |
|
Bud Tayman |
|
John Roberts |