The winners of Harvard Law School’s 59th annual Williston Competition, Harvard’s annual contract negotiation and drafting competition for first-year law students, were announced on April 19.
This year’s winners were:
Best Overall Contract: Aseem Padukone ’14, Stella Unruh ’14, Andrew Sullivan ’14 and Patrick Brown ’14
Best Representation of Hanford School of Law: Nikolas Bowie ’14 and Addar Weintraub ’14
Best Representation of Committee on Outside Activities: Annie Kim ’14 and Sara Canby ’14
The Williston Competition presents participants with a complex business or public policy problem and charges them with representing a client in negotiations, trying to arrive at an agreement that they then reduce to writing. Students compete in teams of two and must submit a ten-page contract that is agreed to by both sides and a three-page memo informing their client of the negotiated deal.
This year’s problem involved a negotiation between the faculty and administration at The Hanford School of Law over permission for professors to develop online course offerings.
“This year’s winners demonstrated an excellent ability to advocate successfully on behalf of their clients at the same time they discovered ways to cooperate to identify and capture joint gains. In this way, they embodied the best practices of problem-solving lawyers seeking to handle conflicts that can only be solved through mutual collaboration,” said Robert Bordone ’97, Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program
The Williston Competition is administered annually by Harvard Negotiators, a student organization devoted to providing Harvard Law School students opportunities to develop and practice negotiation skills through competitions, simulations, and work with real life clients. The judges for this year’s competition were Ellen Wheeler ’12, Ruchi Desai ’13, and Chad Ellis (HBS Graduate) a negotiation consultant and mediator.