Liberty Law team represents US on world stage at negotiation competition in Brazil

Two Liberty University School of Law students were invited to represent the United States on the world stage at the International Negotiation Competition (INC) in Amazonas, Brazil, in July after winning the National Negotiations Competition in Chicago in February. Sixteen countries were represented.

A negotiations competition involves two parties negotiating a deal pertaining to a certain subject matter within 50 minutes. Teams are judged based on the effectiveness of their questions, justifications, creative solutions, and how well they served their client’s interests.

The team of 3L Hannah Noeske and Gregory McCarthy (’24) beat out 250 other law school teams in earlier stages of competition (they were named co-champions at regionals last fall and the champions at nationals). McCarthy graduated in May, and 3L Brooke Santoyo was selected to take his place and advanced with Noeske to represent the U.S. in Brazil. Professor of Law Joel Hesch coached the pair.

“(The competition) is very real-world because every lawyer conducts negotiations every day, even negotiating a deadline in a court case,” Hesch said. “Negotiations is one of the most common and important skills of lawyers.”

Hesch, who has coached negotiations for 18 years, said he could not be prouder of the work Noeske and Santoyo did, and he is grateful they had this cultural opportunity.

“They exceeded my expectations. The difference between our national competition and the world competition is that there are different cultures,” Hesch said. “Even in the introduction (to the competition), they said to try not to view this as a competition so much as a cultural event, because you are going to be exposed to different negotiation styles and customs that are different than yours.”

Generally, teams are invited to the competition based on local and national negotiation competitions. A team from Singapore took first place.

Noeske said the competition was an amazing cross-cultural experience that she has been able to apply in her current internship at Yugo Collins, PLLC, a law firm in Roanoke.

“The competition really helped me develop confidence in my professional skillsets, such as public speaking, attorney interaction, and client advocacy,” she said.

Santoyo said competing against teams from other countries was a lesson in appreciating different methods.

“To go into this legal field and act as lawyers on this international stage with different nations, it’s so different than just adapting to the offers they are making, it’s about adapting to the different styles. As we would hope the other team would adapt to (our negotiation style), we were willing to adapt to theirs. It was so informative and really helpful, and it will definitely help us in our profession.”

Both women emphasized that negotiation competitions have built up their confidence.

“When you enter law school, you have a bit of imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence. For me, going to regionals and nationals, I could feel my confidence increasing,” Noeske said. “At the INC, it’s an even bigger stage, so there definitely is a lot of pressure, but I felt prepared for it because of the opportunities Liberty has provided me.”

Noeske credited Liberty Law’s “fantastic” lawyering skills program, unique among law schools, for helping her excel so highly in the competitions.

Even though the experience will benefit them long term, Noeske and Santoyo said the biggest honor was being able to represent Christ to their competitors, some of whom came from countries where Christianity is not widely practiced. Santoyo, who served as chaplain over the law student body during her 2L year, said God was present throughout the entire trip and called the two of them to be partners on the world stage.

“It is amazing to be able to represent Christ to people from other nations who may not have the opportunity to interact with (Christians), because a lot of these people are coming from places where Christianity is not a big deal, so they don’t have exposure to that,” Santoyo said. “It was really cool to see the different ways we can communicate with people all around the world but also have people tell us that they didn’t think Americans would be this nice. But really it is because of Christ.”

Between rounds, Noeske and Santoyo discussed their faith with the some of the other teams and answered questions about their beliefs.

“Liberty prepared us really well for that, especially when we talk about faith intersecting with the law,” Noeske said. “All of the classes at Liberty Law start out with a devotion and incorporate the biblical worldview into the topics we discuss. We had to be ready with an answer as to our faith, and that was the Lord, giving us the words to say and the aroma of Christ while we were there.”

Noeske and Santoyo were also proud to represent their country.

“The USA has a dominant presence in the world, so just to wear the USA name was amazing,” Santoyo added. “It carries a different weight, in a good way. I want not only Liberty, but America, to be doing well in these competitions.”

Being part of a winning team is going to reflect well when applying for jobs, Noeske said, as the competition shows direct evidence of their skillsets and their profound dedication to the legal profession.

“When you go into an interview or you are talking to a future employer, they are going to recognize the effort you put into competitions and how you excelled because it demonstrates your understanding of the practice of law.,” she said. “Having these titles can be helpful for future students to see that our lawyering skills program is excellent. I am going to be far more equipped for the bar and the practice of law than I would have been had I not competed in these competitions.”