RPJ Staff and Interns Attend Columbia Law School’s International and Comparative Law Program… and take home the top prize!

Last week, Columbia Law School graciously hosted RPJ Summer Interns, Clara Kolker and Joshua Blankstein, and RPJ Paralegal, Ariana Zhao, at the Law School’s International and Comparative Law Program. The Program’s two-day “Introduction to Negotiation” course, attended by the RPJ team at the invitation of Dean Adam Kolker, was taught by Professor Shawn Watts, a faculty member at the University of Kansas and Director of its Tribal Judicial Support Clinic. Prof. Watts is also a federal and state Mediator, and was a spirited, passionate and knowledgeable leader of the Introduction to Negotiation seminar in which they participated.

Over the course of the two-day Program, our prospective law students at RPJ eschewed textbooks in favor of interactive engagement with Professor Watts and participated in multiple hands-on exercises simulating real-life negotiations, with lawyers and law students from over 25 different countries.  And in the final competition, testing their negotiation and business skills built over the course of the Program, RPJ’s Clara, Joshua and Ariana came up with an inventive solution and took the top prize!

Congratulations on their accomplishment and original thinking!  Such creativity will be sure to serve them well as future lawyers.