King Hall hosts the ABA Regional Negotiations Competition, KHNT team places third

Posted By Amanda Saunders, Nov 6, 2017

UC Davis School of Law hosted the 2017 ABA Regional Law Student Negotiations Competition on November 4th through 5th. It was the first time the law school hosted this prestigious event.

Twenty teams from across ABA Region 10 traveled to King Hall for the competition, including students from Lewis & Clark Law School, McGeorge School of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, Seattle University School of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law, University of Idaho College of Law, and University of Oregon School of Law. This year’s topic was National Security Law.

Competitors from the King Hall Negotiations Team (KHNT) included the teams of Stefan Weidemann ’19 & Lexi Airey ’19, Kim Angulo ’19 & Priyam Desai ’19, and Alejandro Marin ’19 & Sara Taylor ’19. KHNT members Carina Novell ’19 & Dina Dimirjian ’19 also participated in the competition as a ghost team.

The teams of Kim Angulo & Priyam Desai and Stefan Weidemann & Lexi Airey tied for fourth place after Saturday’s preliminary rounds. Kim & Priyam advanced to Sunday’s final round after a close tie-breaker. In addition to the competitors from UC Davis, teams from McGeorge, the University of Oregon, and UC Berkeley also advanced to the finals.

In a close final round, the University of Oregon narrowly took the first-place spot. McGeorge and UC Davis tied for second place; the tie breaker went to McGeorge, resulting in a third-place finish for the UC Davis team of Kim & Priyam. UC Berkeley came in fourth.

KHNT is extremely grateful to the practitioners who acted as competition judges, including alumni and friends of King Hall who currently sit as Superior Court Judges, in-house counsel, or law firm associates. We were touched by the alumni who came from as far as Los Angeles to support our efforts.

KHNT extends its sincerest appreciation to Professor Donna Shestowsky, faculty advisor, for her commitment to the negotiations team and her extra support in hosting the competition at King Hall. KHNT also extends its gratitude to the Dean’s Office for their generous financial support.

A special acknowledgment goes to KHNT President, Bianca Rodriguez ’18; KHNT ABA Competition Chair, Andrew Laucella ’19; and KHNT Judge Liaison, Michael Podshadley ’19, for their hard work in successfully organizing and implementing the 2017 ABA Regional Negotiations Competition at King Hall. Thank you also to Saba Shatara ’13, KHNT’s faculty coach, and student coaches Danielle Lauber ’18, Anton Swain-Gil ’18, Rebecca Friedemann ’18, Moji Majekodunmi ’18, and Adam Brownrout ’18.