Regent University School of Law's Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) team of Katy Dacanay and Bo Holden won the Robert R. Merhige Jr. National Environmental Negotiation Competition held at the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law, March 27-28.After two days of intense competition against 26 teams from 15 law schools nationwide, Regent bested teams from Pepperdine, University of Maryland, Lewis and Clark, and Hastings law schools to advance and win in the final round.
Teams were judged on how well they were able to negotiate with opposing teams towards a mutually agreeable problem solution.
Dacany and Holden, along with Regent Law professor and team coach Eric DeGroff, cite the Regent Law ADR board's dedication and cooperative spirit as an essential component of the team's success.
"The most important factor [in our success] is that Regent's ADR board is extremely active," DeGroff said. "Students are very supportive of one another and spend a lot of time researching and sparring with one another. It's truly a board-wide effort."
To compete as a representative of the ADR board, students must have taken a standard negotiations class, met GPA requirements and participated in an intramural negotiations competition.
Before the competition, Holden and Dacany went through a week-and-a-half of intense sparring practice.
Regent has won the Merhige National Environmental Negotiation Competition on three previous occasions, and Regent teams were finalists at last year's event.
For information on the growing list of recent Regent Law moot court and negotiations awards and recognitions, click here.