Staff + Student LoginWaikato Law students win award at Denmark competition
14 July 2011
Top Negotiators: University of Waikato law students Andrew Cameron (left) and Ben Gilbert (second left) negotiate with the team from Japan.
Waikato Law students representing New Zealand at an international competition in Denmark, have won the Joint Maximising Plus Award for their negotiating skills. Ben Gilbert and Andrew Cameron represented New Zealand at the international negotiation competition in Copenhagen, and came home with the Joint Maximising Plus Award.
“Our award, shared with The Netherlands, was for the two teams that successfully negotiated the best result for both parties,” says Cameron, a mature student in the final year of his law degree.
International Competition
In the competition, each team is given a party or client and must represent them in an international transaction or in the resolution of an international dispute. They then negotiate with a team from another country with judges assessing their performance. Twenty teams were in the competition and New Zealand faced Northern Ireland, Japan and The Netherlands.
“The complexity of the problems, cultural differences and different negotiating styles made the competition more challenging than we’d experienced in New Zealand and Australia, so to come away with the award was extremely satisfying,” Cameron says.
Key Support
Gilbert and Cameron won the Buddle Findlay sponsored New Zealand negotiation competition last year and their trip to Denmark was supported by the Law Foundation and University of Waikato. The financial backing meant law lecturer Christina ter Haar could accompany them as coach and mentor.
She says the pair prepared themselves well. “They responded well under pressure and what made it even more challenging were the different judges, who, depending on their backgrounds, had different priorities. Judges were high profile industry executives, commercial lawyers and some were academics and each one seemed to apply the criteria differently. This experience - competing in a lively international environment - can only enhance their career opportunities.”
Ben Gilbert and Andrew Cameron will graduate with honours degrees at the end of the year.
