On February 5 and 6, dozens of students gathered on campus to participate in the annual Client Counseling Competition sponsored by the school’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Board.

The competition provides current students an opportunity to practice their client counseling skills as they meet in two-person teams to discuss legal issues with fictitious clients. Top rated participants were then invited to join the ADR Board and participate in future client counseling competitions.

This year, seventy-two teams participated in the competition and eleven teams were selected to join the board. Jared Rudolph, chair of the Client Counseling Competition, remarked that “the competition went very well” and that several strong competitors were selected to represent GW in future external competitions.

Rudolph explained that “most GW students receive no formal training in this essential skill, and hopefully this year’s competition provided them with an opportunity to develop effective client counseling habits before they encounter real clients.”

Among those students selected to join the ADR Board was 1L student Erin Dykstra who said, “the competition was a great opportunity to flex my counseling muscles and engage in something real attorneys do all the time: establish rapport with a client.”

Not only did the ADR board select strong competitors, but all students who participated in the competition were provided with important resources for improving their client counseling skills – practice that most students never receive during law school.

Rudolph explained that the purpose of the event is two-fold. First, the current board looks to determine which individuals in the student body have extraordinary skill in counseling clients for consideration in future events. More importantly however, the ADR board hopes to provide the general student body the ability to become more successful attorneys through client counseling tips and practice.

Compared to previous events, Rudolph commented that “the level of competition this year was higher than last year” and that many “teams that were not selected for the board this year would have been selected in previous years.”

In order to offer participants a realistic and educational experience, the ADR Board provided a tip session where current members demonstrated how to execute a strong, successful client counseling session. Additionally, competitors were given practice problems and fact patterns used in last year’s competition as preparation.

As with all law school competitions, subjectivity a plays consequential role in this competition. To maintain a level of competitive fairness, the ADR board established two new practices not performed in previous competitions.

First, judges and those individuals acting as clients were required to attend training sessions where they learned to normalize their scores through group discussions on effective client counseling.

Additionally, teams selected to join the board will participate in out-rounds to ensure that the strongest teams will represent GW in external competitions. These teams will participate in regional competitions and may advance to national and international competitions. Remaining board members will have the opportunity to participate in other external competitions focused on negotiations, mediation, and international arbitration.

Overall, the competition was a success and the ADR Board’s purposes behind the competition were effectively realized. As GW Law students graduate and begin their practice, most will have many opportunities to counsel clients.

It is notable that clients approach attorneys with problems comprised of confusing facts and emotions—not organized legal claims and questions. As a result, effective client counseling is a practical skill that must be practiced and improved to achieve successful lawyering.