GSC Mediation Team ends season on a high note

GAINESVILLE - The Gainesville State College Mediation Team won eighth place out of 47 teams competing in the International Academy of Dispute Resolution's 11th Annual International Law School Mediation Tournament recently held at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

GSC students Gina Schwartz of Flowery Branch, President of the Mediation Club, Will Rigdon of Gainesville, past President of the Mediation Club, and Madeleine Broxton of Cleveland comprised the team.

GSC student Scott Fuller of Flowery Branch accompanied the team as alternate by virtue of his winning top national honors as Mediation Advocate with a swing partner from Brenau University at the Drake National Mock Mediation Tournament in fall of 2011.

The Law School Mediation Tournament 8th place award was the only award won by an undergraduate team at this Law School Tournament since Drake's undergraduate team placed a number of years ago. GSC was invited to this competition on the basis of finishing in the finals of the November 2011 National Mock Mediation Tournament at Drake University.

Teams in GSC team competition rounds included Loyola University Chicago School of Law and DePaul University College of Law (both of Chicago), Georgetown University Law Center (Washington, D.C.), Cornell Law School (New York), University of California Hastings College of Law (San Francisco), University of Windsor (Canada), Tulane University Law School (New Orleans), University Five Year Law College-University of Rajasthan (Jaipur, India), South Texas College of Law (Houston), National Law University, Delhi, India), University of Munich Law School (Germany), Osgoode Hall Law School-York University (Toronto, Canada), and National Law Institute University, (Bhopal, India).

Additional law schools in the competition included the John Marshall Law School (Chicago), BPP Law School (London, UK), William & Mary School of Law (Williamsburg, VA), Michigan State University College of Law, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Ottawa (Canada), and Liverpool John Moores University (United Kingdom).

Dr. Ray-Lynn Snowden, Associate Professor of Communication, Media Studies and Journalism, accompanied the GSC team to this tournament. She serves as the head coach of the GSC Mediation Team; Dr. Tom Preston, a professor in the Communication, Media & Journalism Department and Director of Forensics, co-sponsors the Mediation Club. This year's club consisted of 111 individuals, and the team members who competed this season were chosen from the club. Assisting the GSC Mediation Team in preparation for the Chicago Tournament were also attorney and GSC Instructor of Paralegal Studies John G. Breakfield and U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry Moorer.

The performance at Chicago ends a year in which GSC had seven first place honors, including two national titles, and both individual and team top ten finishes at Undergraduate Nationals in addition to the first place awards. Additionally, GSC students Scott Fuller, Mason Roszel, and Fernando Gonzalez were on the International Academy of Dispute Resolution All-American team for the 2011-2012 season.