The John Marshall Law School sent two teams to the American Bar Association’s Regional Negotiations Competition. The team of Christopher Jeckel and Lauren Rankins (on left) took third place honors. Second-year students Christina Faklis and Jesse Tyler also competed.
Excellent negotiation skills by Lauren Rankins and Christopher Jeckel brought home a third-place finish for The John Marshall Law School at the American Bar Association’s Regional Negotiations Competition Nov. 4 and 5 in Kansas City, Mo.
Rankins has yet to take a negotiations course, but her strong oral arguments, paired with Jeckel’s exceptional memory for details led to remarkable performances.
“This is another outstanding outcome for our negotiations team,” said Professor Susann “Sunny” MacLachlan, director of the Center for Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. “Each year our negotiation teams go through rigorous practice schedules leading up to these competitions. Our consistent placement in the final rounds is a testament to our students’ talents and commitment, and the quality of our coaching staff.”
In Round 1, Rankins and Jeckel negotiated a real estate closing. In Round 2, they tried to settle a neighbor dispute: their client’s son was accused of unbecoming behavior that was disturbing neighbors. Of the four Chicago law schools in the competition, John Marshall’s team was the only one to advance to the finals.
“It really was a total shock. When you hear people say they were shocked to receive the Oscar, that’s what it felt like for me,” Jeckel remembers.
They had just 12 hours to prepare for the final round. Rankins read the confidential facts to Jeckel, who is legally blind. He memorized every detail. They stayed up late in preparation, and admit they were nervous, but decided to “go for broke” and take charge of the case of the neighbor dispute from Round 2 that got more complicated with a young woman injured at an unauthorized party at their client’s home.
“It was like speed chess,” Jeckel said. But they found that the more questions of the other team at the negotiation table, the more information they received, helping them establish and advance their client’s position.
Afterward they each complimented the other for an excellent three rounds of competition.
“He really is amazing on the details. I read him the confidential facts for the third round, and he picked up on everything,” Rankins said of her teammate.
“Lauren just took control of the table: that’s a negotiating term where you take control of the conversation. She set the tone for us right from the start,” Jeckel said.
“We had a lot of tense practice sessions, but Chris was really good at easing the tension” by cracking a joke, Rankins recalled. Jeckel, who has done improvisational comedy, said his time on stage helped him feel less anxious in competition. And Rankins, who played competitive sports through high school and college, believes having been a member of a team helped her contribute to a team success.
Rankins and Jeckel along with second-year students Jesse Tyler and Christina Faklis, their counterparts on John Marshall’s second negotiations team in the competition, committed hours in preparation, as did Carlos Aparicio, Suman Bandi, Lauren Clarke, Pooja Dosi and Luke Wiley who served as alternates.
“Competition preparation takes dedication,” MacLachlan said. “Each of these students, even though they were not all selected for Kansas City, worked in preparation as though they would be competing.”
Rankins and Jeckel say they had such an exciting experience because of the outstanding coaching of John Marshall alumni and former negotiation team members Ian Bucciarelli (JD ’07), assistant director for the Center’s Dispute Resolution Program, and Bill Kalbac (JD ’09) of Freedman Anselmo and Lindberg, and Alex Dimitt (JD ’10) of Chaet Kaplan Baim.