Successful negotiators

Runners up: Rita Nabney and Greg Burt

A Waikato University law team has come runner up in the New Zealand negotiation competition. Greg Burt and Rita Nabney, both mature law students from Tauranga, won the Waikato competition and competed in the Australasian competition before making the finals of the Buddle Findlay-sponsored New Zealand event.

A team of two students, representing a client, negotiates either a transaction or the resolution of a dispute with an opposing team of two students who represent their own client. Both teams receive a common set of facts as well as confidential information known only to their team.

Greg Burt, former policeman and bar owner and now third year law student says competing in events like these is a good way to learn.

"It's a great experience, getting given a situation, having 24 hours to think about it, then sitting down and nutting out an agreement with the opposing team," says Greg. "It's about getting to do the processes you've learnt about in lectures and practiced in class."

Greg Burt began his law degree in Tauranga, where Waikato University offers a Diploma in Law, and he now travels to Hamilton three days a week with other Tauranga-based law students. Rita Nabney was an HR Manager with both Fonterra and formerly Cartor Holt Harvey, but with a husband and two children all lawyers, is now completing her law degree at Waikato. "Competing in these competitions is a lot of work, but also a privilege," says Rita. "You learn a lot, meet great people and most of all, you want to do well for your university."

Lecturer Christina ter Haar says competing in the competitions provides students with a great opportunity to network with other students and law firms around the country. "It's great for their CV and it also provides them with some very 'real' experience that they can bring to their careers later on. Greg and Rita are very committed hardworking students - their very positive attitudes have stood them in good stead for competing in these competitions.