The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Board's Internal Negotiations Competition went off without a hitch last Saturday and Sunday.  It was an e-mail sent out the Thursday before, however that had competitors questioning whether the competition would take place and what problem the participants would be negotiating.

As reported by the Nota Bene Online, the Thursday before the competition an e-mail intended for judge's eyes only was sent out to all competitors.  This email revealed the confidential information that both sides were to use in reaching an agreement.  Approximately 14 minutes after the original email, a follow-up was sent acknowledging the error and asking competitors to refrain from reading any of the confidential material.

Two hours later, the Board sent a third email notice to all competitors, this one stating that the problem would be rewritten, and the rewritten problem was emailed out at 7:45pm.

When asked for comment, the ADR Board responded, "Unfortunately, an email containing confidential information for judges was inadvertently sent to competitors early Thursday afternoon.  The ADR Board learned of its error immediately and issued a new problem to all competitors via email and distributed in hard copy at the Records Office later the same afternoon.  Issuance of a new problem was necessary to preserve the integrity of the competition as a whole."

Initial student reaction to the problem was mixed from confusion and disappointment, to respect for how the Board handled this unlikely issue.  2L Anika Keswani said, "Although I was surprised that the initial reaction of the ADR board was to simply hope competitors hadn't read the attachments (after having 30 minutes before the email went out to do so), I was impressed with how quickly they turned it around and provided new scenarios for everyone. The end result was good but there were a couple of hours where I wasn't sure if they be able to have the competition at all - after all that work!"

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, stated, "I think the mistake was an honest one but it goes to show that these competitions should not be run by law students. I mean if you have so little attention to detail that you allow such a major mishap to occur, how exactly do you expect to become an effective lawyer?"

Despite these pre-competition concerns, it does not appear that too many competitors were negatively impacted by the mishap and ensuing change in problems.  First year student Jonathan Ripa confessed that the situation had little impact upon him and his partner, as they had not yet met to discuss their negotiation strategy.  Ripa states, "We were lucky. We had not planned to look at the problem until Friday, so it ended up working out well for us."  Both Ripa and his partner went on to make the Board.

Even students who did not enjoy successful results acknowledged that the e-mail did not have too great of an impact upon their competition performance.  Alisa Brem, another first year competitor, noted that she too had not looked at the initial problem before receiving the inadvertent email.  Still, she admits that had she prepared beforehand, she may have been somewhat confused by the mix-up.  According to Brem, some of her associates who prepared for both problems found that the continuity in fictional parties to the negotiation led to confusion over what background material was confidential, or even relevant, to the actual competition.

Overall, both Ripa and Brem stated that the weekend competition was a great experience. According to Brem, "it was really fun and interesting to be able to get out of the classroom and actually pretend to be a lawyer, especially as a 1L." Ripa agreed that it "was a lot of fun to get to sit down across the table from two people and debate an issue."

The ADR Board declined to comment any further on the competition, directing the Nota Bene to its previous statements published online last Friday. For these comments and more information on the inadvertent email, including the remarks of Dean Johnson, please visit the Nota Bene Online, at http://www.notabene.gwsba.com.

Additional reporting by Katie Earnest.