The 2nd NLU Delhi - Herbert Smith Freehills International Negotiation Competition 2015." 11-13/9/2015

The 2nd NLU Delhi - Herbert Smith Freehills International Negotiation Competition 2015

The 2nd edition of the NLU Delhi – Herbert Smith Freehills International Negotiation Competition, organised jointly by National Law University, Delhi and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, was held from 11-13 September 2015.

The Competition saw the participation of twenty-three teams from six countries, including the UK, Germany, India, Pakistan, Australia and Hong Kong. On the first day of the Competition, the participants faced each other in two grueling preliminary rounds, with negotiation simulations based on international commercial and legal issues.

From the preliminary rounds, four teams progressed to an exciting semi-final round. The second day of the Competition began with matches between the University of Cambridge and Oxford University, and between King’s College London and Deakin University. After the closely fought semi-final rounds, the University of Cambridge and Deakin University proceeded to the final round.

Hon’ble Justice V. Gopala Gowda (Judge, Supreme Court of India), Mark Bardell (Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills) and Neena Gupta (General Counsel at InterGlobe) judged the excellent final round, from which the University of Cambridge emerged the winners of the Competition with a prize of INR 100,000 (~1000 GBP).

The team from the Universty of New South Wales won the prize for the Best Negotiation Plan, while Senjuti Mallick of ILS Pune was adjudged the Best Negotiator, with both receiving a prize of INR 20,000 (~200 GBP). The newly introduced ‘Spirit of the Competition Award’ was received by NLU Jodhpur. The prizes were sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP.

Mark Bardell, Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and a judge in the final round, said, “The competition was a great success. From the many students from around India and around the world who flew in to participate, to the many lawyers who gave up their weekends to judge and to the superhuman efforts of the organising committee at NLU Delhi: I heard only praise for the quality of the competition. It is something that Herbert Smith Freehills is particularly proud of supporting.”