The great news continues regarding the Maryland Carey Law advocacy teams. Recently members of the Maryland Carey Law ADR Team and the BLSA ADR Team engaged in international mediation and negotiation competitions.
The National ADR Team sent two teams to the International ADR Mediation Tournament hosted by Loyola University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. The international competition featured 29 teams. The teams compete in groups of three and must master the skills and techniques required to participate in the role of attorney, client, and mediator once in each of the three preliminary rounds.
For the first time, all students from both Maryland Carey Law teams advanced to the semi-final round. Students, Caitlyn Sarudy, Tyler Fultz, Gabriella Werner, Mya Jeter, Melissa LaMotta, and Melissa Sobrepera had to mediate positions and interests around a range of topics including basketball contracts, insurance claims, and municipal ordinances. The team of Caitlyn, Tyler, and Gabriella placed 6th out of 29 for attorney-client team. Three Maryland Carey Law team members, Tyler, Gabriella and Melissa Sobrepera finished among the top 10 in the mediator category out of 86 competitors.
The team was coached by the National ADR Team advisor, Toby Guerin with guest coaching from several National ADR Team alumni, Jaclyn Fonteyne’19, Alex Montanio’16, Sherri Borman, and Paige Bellamy’23. Several Mediation Clinic students assisted with moots along with many other National ADR Team members.
The BLSA Negotiation Team took first and second place in the “all-Maryland finals” of the National Black Law Student Association International Negotiation Competition. The first-place finishers were Inaya Soudan and Samiah Bansal and the second-place finishers were Alexis Wood and Sofian Kherdeen. This was the largest year of the competition involving 24 teams from across the country.
The students negotiated four separate rounds, including just an hour and a half to prepare for the semi-finals. The teams faced each other in the finals held at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where they represented either the U.S. Government or the African Union in a discussion regarding international business policy and corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The team was sponsored and coached by Alex Montanio ’16, Natalie Gibson ’23, and Tamia Morris ’23 of Gordon Feinblatt LLC with support from many BLSA ADR team alumni and National ADR Team members Dakota Foster, Kennedy Hagens, LaQuan Bates, and Mya Jeter.
These are truly amazing accomplishments by all involved. A big thank you to the everyone who contributed to the success of the teams and for everyone on the staff and faculty for all their work behind the scenes.