The event took place at Kingston Law School on 24 November and involved 12 mediation teams from across Scotland, Ireland and England.
The winning team from Winchester was made up of Steph Brown, Amy Gallagher, Kate Garrett and James Stephens - all members of the University's Negotiation Society. Other teams taking part included Law students from the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester Metropolitan and Queen's University, Belfast as well as City University London and the College of Law.
We are immensely proud and still a little shocked by our win, said final year LLB Law student Amy Gallagher from Knowle Village near Farnham. At first it was a little overwhelming as many of the other competitors were a lot further along in their education and careers. However as we relaxed into the day we became more comfortable and confident in our own abilities.
The competition required students to put into practice their skills of facilitating others to move towards reconciliation. There were four rounds with two students in each team acting as mediators in a pair with the other two acting as clients to opposing teams. The hour's mediation gave time enough to begin the process rather than reach an actual settlement.
The Winchester team achieved the highest score for round two and went on to become overall winners based on all four rounds.
Events like this offer an unrivalled opportunity for students to engage with professional mediators and legal practitioners and to receive direct feedback, said David Chalk, Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange within the Faculty of Business, Law and Sport at Winchester. It is an immensely powerful learning environment.
Further information about programmes of study in Law at the University of Winchester can be found at www.winchester.ac.uk
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A print-ready image of the winning team (David Chalk (centre) with students (L to R) Amy Gallagher, Steph Brown, Kate Garrett and James Stephens) is available to download by clicking here