A team of four students from the University of Aberdeen Law School are celebrating after securing second place in the hotly contested UK Mediation Student Competition 2023.
Open to those studying Law at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, the competition is designed to help students understand the value of resolving disputes through mediation and help develop their mediation skills and techniques.
This year’s event was hosted by SOAS University of London. During the competition, teams of three students are judged over three rounds, with each team member performing two mediations as a co-mediator. In each round, competitor institutions have two team members mediating while another performs the role of the party coming to mediation.
The Aberdeen team, comprising of Diploma in Professional Legal Practice students Sophie O’Neilll, Simeona Kostova, Tanya Yesipova, and Maria Gancheva, battled it out against 17 other teams to secure second place, narrowly missing out to the eventual winners, University of Edinburgh.
Coach Patrick Achor, Teaching Fellow at the Law School, said: “Mediation is a vital skill in resolving disputes and enhancing a lawyer’s ability to protect and promote clients’ interests. It was a pleasure to work with the team in the run up to the competition and they richly deserved to have their hard work and skills recognised with this terrific result.”
The Law School Director of Education Professor Susan Stokeld added: “The competition is an excellent channel for encouraging participants to apply their knowledge throughout the course of their personal and professional lives. We are proud to have these negotiators of the future representing the University of Aberdeen Law School and congratulate them on their success.”