Monday, May 27, 2019
On February 8-9, 2019, Liberty Law second-year students, Sarah Green and Nick Andrews, became national quarterfinalists at the American Bar Association (ABA) National Negotiation Competition in Chicago, IL. Out of the 193 total teams that competed this past year, they finished in the top eight in the nation.
The team was coached by Professor Joel Hesch and Liberty Law alumna and Gentry Locke employee, Ms. Mia Yugo.
Yugo, who also traveled with the team, commented, “Sarah and Nick are incredibly gifted negotiators. To perform at such a high level and achieve this type of national success so early in their legal careers is a remarkable feat. The LU team was professional, flexible, and articulate. Put simply: they exemplified what it means to be a Liberty lawyer-to pursue excellence at a national level.”
According to Hesch, only the top 20 teams in the nation were invited to compete at the national tournament. Ranked second after the preliminary rounds, Green and Andrews defeated both Southern Methodist University (SMU) Dedman School of Law and Albany Law School with a near-perfect ballot score.
They won with all but one judge and finished second after the preliminaries with a stunning +56 point differential—the highest point differential out of all 20 teams in the national competition.
Advancing to the quarterfinals, the LU team ranked higher than 19 of the 20 teams competing at nationals, among them Georgetown, SMU, and University of North Carolina, to take their place as one of the top eight teams before ultimately being defeated by the University of Montana in the quarterfinals.
Praised by the judges for their “great teamwork, brilliant strategy, creative solutions, and thorough preparation,” Green and Andrews performed at an extraordinarily high level on a national stage.
“They were firm but patient, polite but conversational as they negotiated against the top teams in the country,” said Hesch. “Throughout the tournament, they were complimented for their remarkable ability to maintain control of the negotiation and exceed client expectations.”
For more information about the Liberty University School of Law’s competition teams, please visit our website.