This past weekend, three Harvard Law School students took home the first place trophy from The Negotiation Challenge in Leipzig, Germany. A team comprised of Frederic Bourdais ’07, Kimathi Kueneya ’07, and Grace Chien ’08 won the competition.
“Because our classes on negotiation at HLS provided us with an unmatched range of skills, we felt prepared to confront our opponents in the competition,” said Bourdais, the captain of the winning team. “One very important lesson we learned throughout the competition was how to utilize our team’s diversity to our advantage: Kimathi is from Africa, Grace is Asian-American, and I am European. Because of our diverse experiences and viewpoints, we were able to take a truly global approach to negotiating with our opponents.”
Jointly organized by Harvard Law School and the Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the Challenge hopes to bring students together from all over the world to compete in negotiation situations. Robert Bordone, Clinical Professor and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, was one of the events organizers.
“In an ever more global market, it’s essential that our students graduate with the know-how and skill-set to negotiate effectively across contexts, cultures, and national boundaries,” Bordone said. “The students’ victory in Germany this past weekend in competition with teams from Europe, North America, and India is a testimony to the robustness of this approach. I’m very pleased for our students and proud of their great accomplishment.”
The Negotiation Challenge is the first international negotiation competition in Europe, and one of only a few international negotiation competitions in the world. William Gordon’07, Kenneth Basin ’08, and Matthias Prause ’06 also represented HLS at the competition.