Law students negotiating their way to success

From left to right: Emma Nichelsen, Andrew Ciantar and two of their fellow competitors

When two Western Sydney law students decided to take their love of debating into a national competition, they never expected it to trigger a series of events that led them to representing their country in Switzerland in the world's foremost international negotiation competition. 

Yet after winning the 2015 Sir Laurence Street Negotiation Competition hosted by the Australian Law Students' Association, it wasn't long before Emma Nichelsen and Andrew Ciantar were on a plane heading to Lucerne, Switzerland to test their legal negotiation skills in the international arena.

Drawing fellow law students and legal professionals across the world, the International Negotiation Competition (opens in a new window) is a highly regarded competition that involves intensive training and workshops followed by a fierce competition. 

Emma and Andrew found the entire experience to be extremely rewarding as they were able to hone their legal negotiation skills and network with fellow law students and legal professionals from all over the world. 

The Western Sydney University students finished the competition in second place, beating scores of competitors from across the world in their run to the final.

Emma and Andrew have attributed their success to their involvement in negotiation competitions and preparation run by Western Sydney University Law Students' Association (WSLSA) and the enormous support from individuals from the School of Law.

"Being a part of the WSLSA has been such a great help to getting us where we are today. By participating in all the regularly run competitions and coaching and training, it really has helped me to develop my negotiation skills. The WSLSA organises for law alumni to come in and provide coaching which is fantastic as we were able to get advice and tips from practicing legal professionals".

"In particular, I found the support and coaching from John Juriansz, the Director of Academic Programs for Law and Law lecturer, to be particularly useful. The law staff have gone above and beyond in their advice and coaching. They are so involved and committed to helping students on an individual basis".

Through their interactions with law students in Australia and internationally from the competitions, Emma and Andrew have expressed their appreciation for all the opportunities they have been given to do practical legal work through the WSLSA's activities and through assessment tasks set by the School of Law.

"It's fantastic how at Western Sydney University, law students are given access to all these practical opportunities from their first year. In my first year of study, we were able to apply our legal theoretical knowledge through practical assessment tasks such as moot court applications".

John Juriansz, their coach and past competitor in both the national and international competitions, is thrilled by Emma and Andrew's success in the competition.

"I am very proud of their accomplished performances and predict exciting careers in front of them."

Ends 

22 August 2016

Emily Lam, Media Assistant