The National Mediator Competition was created to offer law students the opportunity to experience the process of mediation in a unique forum.  The Mediator Competition is innovative and unique in two distinct and important ways: 
1)  It is one of the only competitions where students serve as mediators and are judged on their effectiveness as a mediator and
2)  It is the first, and only, dual-track competition of its kind.  The National Mediator Competition will run simultaneously with the Law Center’s Newhouse Mediation Competition.   The Newhouse Competition was designed to give students the opportunity to experience representing clients in mediation and therefore provides a perfect template for the overlay of the National Mediator Competition.

Student Benefit:

Mediation training is offered in many US law schools.  However, most of those trainings do not
provide the students the opportunity to actually serve as a mediator in a “high stakes” environment.  The pedagogical benefit to the competing students is they are more prepared to act as mediators, providing a more prepared, higher quality resource to the ADR community

UHLC Benefit:

The Blakely Advocacy Institute seeks to reinforce its reputation as a national leader in advocacy training.  This unique competition expresses our commitment to provide students with opportunities to enter the practice of law with a wide, and highly developed, skill set.