William & Mary Alternative Dispute Resolution Team Reaches Quarter Finals of Baseball Arbitration Competition
Speaking Persuasively Katheryn Maldonado J.D. ’21, Brianna Mashel J.D. ’21 and Lindsey Folcik J.D. ’20 had plenty to smile about, reaching the quarter finals of the 13th Annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition in New Orleans. ADR Team
Members of the William & Mary Alternative Dispute Resolution Team (ADR), including Lindsey Folcik J.D. ’20, Brianna Mashel J.D. ’21 and Katheryn Maldonado J.D. ’21, reached the quarter finals of the 13th Annual Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition, held on January 15-17 in New Orleans, La.
The William & Mary team was the first all-female team to advance to the quarter finals of this competition.
Run by the Tulane Sports Law Society, the Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition is a simulated salary arbitration competition modeled closely on the procedures used by Major League Baseball (MLB). Like most law school moot court competitions, TIBAC’s main goal is to provide participants with the opportunity to sharpen their oral and written advocacy skills. However, the competition is unique in that it allows law students to sharpen these skills within the specialized context of MLB’s salary arbitration proceedings.
Although she considers participation in such a specialized tournament “an uphill battle,” Team Communications Director Lindsey Folcik was very happy with the team’s performance.
“I think that we not only benefited from what we learned last year, but we were able to capitalize on our own strengths in the actual practice of arbitration, speaking persuasively, which even a lot of teams that had extensive substantive expertise were lacking,” Folcik said. “It’s an interesting experience being the only all-girl team, but I think we definitely proved a lot of people wrong, and that was probably the most fun part of it all.”
The ADR team is an ABA Student Division Program dedicated to helping law students hone practical skills through competitions that focus on client counseling and methods of dispute resolution other than litigation. ADR team members compete against each other to advance to the regional level in national competitions.
In recent years, ADR members have competed in the ABA Law Student Division Negotiation Competition, the ABA LASD Client Counseling Competition and the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Advocacy in Mediation Competition.
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