Mediation Team Places First—Three Times
Principia College’s mediation team competed in the first-ever virtual International Intercollegiate Mediation Championship Tournament this fall, demonstrating its versatility and adaptability by winning three out of the four categories of competition: Top Mediator, Champion Team Mediation, and Champion Team Advocacy. In the fourth category, Top Advocate/Client, the team took the seventh-place trophy.
Teams from the USA to India spent three full days mediating cases ranging over personal injury, property rights, community relations, and civil rights violations. Principia qualified for the final round in all categories and saw stiff competition from Boston University, University of Texas, College of the Holy Cross, and law school programs from Bhopal and Jodhpur, India.
Captain Hunter Hummell, a senior, led the team to victory with excellence, diligence, and grace—the prime goals of the team in competition. He took the position of mediator in the final round while teammates Olivia Burbee, a senior, and Delaney Gatine, a junior, played client and advocate. Their performance in the finals edged out the competition and set a new Principia record for achievement in mediation tournament play.
Here are the final results:
- Olivia Burbee: first place, Individual Mediation; first place, Team Advocacy
- Delaney Gatine: third place, Individual Mediation; first place, Team Advocacy
- Hunter Hummell: seventh place, Individual Advocacy; first place, Team Mediation
This year’s victory is the seventh first-place win since 2012 in championship competition, combined with six second-place finishes over the same period. Winning first or second place in the undergraduate tournament guarantees a place in the annual law school competition (to be held in March 2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia). Principia has set a league record with eight straight appearances as an undergraduate institution in the Law School Championship competition.
The College's sustained success in mediation tournaments attracted attention from local media recently. Check out this interview with multidisciplinary professor and mediation team coach Dr. Jeffrey Steele in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.