The Negotiation Challenge Experience - An interview with Albin Thomas

Albin Thomas was a part of a three member team ( Albin Thomas, Chetan Kanungo, Vinesh Chandel) that represented the National Law Institute University in The Negotiation Challenge - 2010 at Leipzig, Germany. The team brought laurels to the University by standing 5th in the competition, with this being the first time that N.L.I.U. participated in the competition. The BlogCom gets in touch with him to find out more..

Q. What was the challenge all about?
A. Under the mechanism of Alternate Dispute Resolution, there are three methods, mediation, arbitration and negotiation. Negotiation is the most informal of the three, and is the basis of any corporate transaction, as before entering into any contract, there is negotiation. The Negotiation Challenge is a competition organized by Harvard Law School and HHL, a premier law school in Germany. Six B-schools and six law schools from around the world are shortlisted on the basis of resume for participation in the competition.

Q. Which were the colleges that took part in the competition this year?

A. From India, it was the National Law Institute University, Bhopal and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. From US, there was Harvard Law School, Georgetown University of Law, and the eventual winners, University of California Hastings, among other business schools from France, Poland etc..

Q. How were the rounds of the competition conducted, which Universities did N.L.I.U. face in the competition?

A. The competition had an excellent concept attached to it. Since it was held in the city of Leipzig, a city which had been destroyed in the World Wars, only to come back, so the rounds of the competition were at different places of historical importance in the city and the rounds were based upon the history of those places. In one of the rounds, we were taken to the old city center and we negotiated a contract between the King's party and the traders, in another we went to an International Football Stadium where we negotiated a football contract. Since the rounds were based on historically and geographically important locations, it was an interesting experience for us.

Ironically, we faced UC Hastings, the winners of the competition in our last round and won that round, but lost to the runners up, a French Business School in our second round. The third round was an individual negotiation round, a one on one competition.

Q. Why do you think negotiation as an activity is important in law school?

A. Since a substantive number of students join law school to make a career in Corporate Law, it is important to learn the art of negotiation, since that is the basis for any corporate transaction taking place, and hence it should be paid attention to. Other forms of resolution like Arbitration and Mediation are much more complex forms when compared to negotiation, while negotiation represents the practical aspect of a contract.

Q. What differentiates negotiation from arbitration and mediation?

A. Arbitration and mediation have their own sets of rules that govern them. However, with negotiation, it's about having business sense, since there are no rules that govern the process of negotiation. One more thing we observed in the competition was that B-School students had a better command on the process than law school students, since it is included in their curriculum, while only law schools from the U.S. had courses on negotiation, which shows the international trend towards negotiation. But in Indian law schools, there still aren't courses directed specifically towards negotiation. N.L.I.U. has a course on arbitration, but not mediation, which shall be an important part of one's corporate career after law school.

Q. What do you think N.L.I.U. should do to encourage negotiation?

A. We could have a non-credit course on negotiation, to explain to the students the principle and the established philosophy that governs the process. As an effect of this, students would benifit through the practical aspect of negotiation, i.e., it's application in a corporate job.

Also, most of the Indian teams face the problem of financing, while other law and business schools that participated had their expenses covered by their institutions and along with that, they had coaches to guide them through the process. In fact the US teams were surprised to see us without a coach, and were impressed by our performance in the competition even in the absence of a coach and specific curriculum dealing with negotiation. So, if we can solve these problems, future teams actually have a pretty good chance at winning the competition.

Q. What would you advise teams that go for such competitions in the future?

A. The most important thing for new teams would be reading up on the topic. Our library does not have enough material on topics such as negotiation at present, so if the students can make an effort to obtain subject material on Negotiation, it would make a great difference. There is a lot of important information regarding the process, available on the internet, for example, the basic principles that need to be followed, how to start, how not to start (important because you do not want to make the other team uncomfortable with your idea or proposal at the very beginning of the round) etc..

Also, the ADRC can organise Intra-Batch competition to encourage practice or research in this area among the students of NLIU.

Q. What was the net positive that the competition lead to, for the entire team?

A. Obviously, the amazing experience that we gained in the competition, and the feeling of finding out that we're doing good, even without traditional preparation, gave us the confidence of doing better in the future. Also, the fact that we were the highest ranked Indian team there, would be considered in shortlisting us for the exclusive competition next year, on the basis of our performance this year.

Q. On a lighter note, tell us about the happiest moment of the entire trip?

A. There is no specific moment, since there were many, one of them being experiencing snow, for all three of us, although coming from different parts of the country, had never experienced snow. I will always remember how our teammate, Chetan, lost his luggage at the airport on arrival, and had to spend a substantial part of the trip with just one set of clothing.