Liberty Law duo crowned champions in international negotiations competition

Earlier this month, the negotiation team of 3L Charlie Wilkie and 2L Will Blankschaen from Liberty University School of Law won the Transatlantic Negotiation Competition, which featured 29 other teams from around the globe. The competition was hosted virtually March 14-16 by Syracuse University College of Law in partnership with Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

The competition hosted a field of 15 teams from the United States and 15 from the nations of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England, Brazil, India, and Australia. Schools are selected based on their prior tournament wins, national ABA ranking, and the general alternative dispute resolution programs within their law school.

Liberty competed against some of the top alternative dispute and advocacy programs in the world, including Georgetown Law, Stetson University College of Law, and St. Mary’s University School of Law from the U.S. and Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).

After successfully advancing past the preliminary rounds, semifinals, and quarterfinals, Wilkie and Blankschaen faced off in the final round against University of New South Wales (the top international law school heading into finals). Their win comes just a couple weeks after 3Ls Izzy McNally and Gavyn Webb placed second in the William & Mary Negotiation Competition in Williamsburg, Va.

Professor of Law Dr. Yuri Mantilla, a faculty advisor for Liberty Law’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) student organization, said he was especially proud of Wilkie and Blankschaen’s performance in the Transatlantic Negotiation Competition.

“I felt blessed to have students such as Mr. Wilkie and Mr. Blankschaen who demonstrated outstanding skills in the art of international negotiations, strategic thinking, and in intercultural communication,” Mantilla said. “However, the most important aspect of all this is that the students recognized that it is by God’s grace alone that we have success in our lives, including winning (an) international negotiations competition.”

In each of the five rounds of the competition, Wilkie and Blankschaen had to negotiate a different deal for different clients. Although switching clients between rounds was difficult, they adapted to the structure.

“Over time, it got a little bit easier for us to communicate and figure out how we wanted to frame (the negotiations) because we started seeing patterns in what our clients’ big issues were,” Blankschaen said. “One of the big things that we wanted to make sure was that all of those clients maintain reputation or some primary goal.”

Blankschaen said they emphasized peacemaking throughout their negotiations, which Wilkie noted is a large part of what they practice on the ADR board, focusing on Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The student-run ADR board competes in negotiations, mediation, and client counseling competitions throughout the year, providing in-depth training and practice on how to prevent and settle litigation.

“One of our main emphases on ADR is that we advocate for our clients’ interests but have an ultimate goal of facilitating peaceful resolutions between both parties, as that’s the main goal of negotiation,” said Wilkie, who serves as vice chair of the ADR board. “The emphasis on finding peaceful resolutions is a constant theme that is reiterated through the Bible; that’s what we’re always called to do, (to) look at the other side and understand their values and goals.”

“We were emphasizing throughout the rounds that we’re not here to try to fight you directly or tell you that you are wrong; we’re here to mend relationships between both of our clients, find ways we can resolve these issues, and find ways to benefit both of our parties in the future,” he added. “We can find a better solution going forward, which is always our key emphasis, and I think it was one of our biggest factors that helped us move through.”

Because the pair was focused on peaceful resolutions throughout its negotiations, the other teams became “more amenable to our creative solutions,” according to Wilkie.

Though they came into the competition with the mindset that they would do their best and glorify God no matter the outcome, the pair of student-litigators said Liberty Law’s focus on practical skills training was influential in helping them succeed and place first.

“It really came down to us focusing on making sure our technique could be the thing that would be better than the other teams’ — and not that we would sell out their client for our client cause, because that doesn’t help anybody,” Blankschaen said.

Both students said opposing teams thanked them after rounds, noting the friendly and peaceful focus they brought into the competition.

“We actually established really great relationships with countries that have never maybe interacted with an American team before,” Wilkie said.

Blankschaen said the competition was not only a great way to showcase the skills of Liberty Law to other law schools that may not be familiar with Liberty but also to represent the United States at a high level and reflect Christ. 

“Even for the U.S. teams, seeing Liberty go forward and taking first on a platform that’s very focused on peacekeeping and deescalating, even though the fact patterns are designed to escalate as you go forward, was a good opportunity to testify that there’s a definite Christian principle of deescalating and putting away the sword, and finding a way where not everything has to end and go to trial,” he said.

As an international student from Calgary, Canada, Wilkie said he was proud of the accomplishment.

“It was great to show that I’m proud of being an international student, so I got to represent myself in that capacity. At the same time, I was able to represent LU, and I’m always so proud to represent the school,” Wilkie said, recalling his years as an undergraduate when he played on the Flames’ Division II Men’s Hockey team. “It’s such an honor, and every time (we get the chance), I’m so happy that we can show just how great LU is, the quality of people we have and produce here, and the skills that LU teaches and trains students to use in the real world.”