Lisa McClane and Jay Odum, both second-year students from the William S. Boyd School of Law, placed first in the Law Student Division National Client Counseling Competition Finals.
The pair competed against teams from 14 other schools, winning the honor to represent the United States in the Louis M. Brown International Client Counseling Competition in Hawaii April 7-9.
Sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Client Counseling Competition emphasizes the importance of preventive law, stressing that clients’ problems can be resolved more effectively outside than inside a courtroom.
In the national competition, the theme was sports and entertainment law. The UNLV duo performed the role of two attorneys jointly conducting an initial interview of their clients. Facing actors playing the role of clients, the two attorneys had to obtain relevant information from their clients, advise them of legal and alternative options, and help the client decide whether to retain the attorneys.
The competition’s final round featured a married couple whose teenage son had been severely injured during a baseball game. Judges praised McClane and Odum for their knowledge of relevant legal issues, empathy toward their clients, and their skill in explaining both the benefits and detriments of litigation given the clients’ family circumstances. The duo emphasized that mediation might prove more satisfactory than litigation for the family, given that the parents needed to spend their time caring for their son.
Jean Sternlight, Saltman Professor of Law and director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at UNLV, helped the team prepare for the competition. “We are incredibly proud of the honor that Lisa and Jay have brought to our school and to the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution,” she said. “The law school was founded on the idea that lawyers need to be prepared not only to litigate disputes when necessary, but also to help their clients avoid disputes altogether and resolve disputes creatively and informally when possible.”
