Judges and winners in the Tom Newhouse Mediation Competition were Je'Anna Abbot, left, Julia Peebles, Canyon Sanford, Drew Padley, Karen Lukin and Carter Dickson, right.
Oct. 21, 2019 — Third-year University of Houston Law Center students Drew Padley and Canyon Sanford triumphed in the Blakely Advocacy Institute’s Tom Newhouse Mediation Competition.
"A lot of what we do in law school can be isolating and tedious, whether it's parsing case law or writing memos," Padley said. "Competitions like these really break the monotony by pulling students into settings where the pressure is on. For a couple of hours, every word, action, and strategy felt like it really mattered. The feedback we got from judges in between rounds was priceless. I had a lot of fun, and it felt great to win."
"Competing in the Tom Newhouse Mediation Competition was challenging and exciting with the format of a round of mediation, followed by criticism from the judges," Sanford added. "We took the tips from every judge after our rounds and tried applying it to the next. By the time we were at the final mediation, there was a clear difference in our strategy and how we approached the proceedings from the way we competed in our very first round."
