Students Compete by Counseling Clients
Jessica Schweer
Issue date: 1/24/06 Section: News
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On Saturday morning, twenty-four GMUSL students met Mr. Davis, a hypothetical client, as part of the annual Client Counseling Competition. The topic of this year's competition, hosted by the GMUSL Trial Advocacy Association, was "Employers and Employees." The competitors, organized into twelve two-person teams, received a brief description of the client's problem and then proceeded to interview the client and conduct a post-consultation meeting with one another. During the client interview, the teams questioned the client in order to draw out relevant information to the client's particular problem and then advised the client on possible legal strategies. During the post-consultation meeting, the team discussed their legal strategy and how to proceed with the client's case. Judges observed both the client interview and post-consultation meeting and evaluated the students.
After evaluating the twelve teams, the judges selected four teams to move on to the afternoon rounds. Elizabeth Bradshaw (1D) and Alexis Conway (1D), Derek Bottcher (2E) and Hugh Rosen (2E), Masha Khazan (1D) and Bernardo Piereck (1D), and Mary Torretta (1D) and Andrew McNiven (1D) were selected to compete in the afternoon session where they counseled a female bartender whose employer dramatically reduced her hours when she gained weight.
The judges selected two teams: Elizabeth Bradshaw/Alexis Conway and Derek Bottcher/Hugh Rosen as the winner's of the GMUSL competition. The top two teams will advance to the Client Counseling Regional Round on February 11, 2006 in Richmond Virginia. Last year, a GMUSL team won 2nd place at the Regional Competition, and the year before a GMUSL team took home 3rd place.