October 16, 2009
St. John’s University’s School of Law will hold The
Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon on Saturday, October
17 and Sunday, October 18 on the Manhattan campus. The triathlon is
a joint initiative of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute
Resolution, the St. John’s Securities Arbitration Clinic, and the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The competition will hone
and test student advocacy skills in a realistic and comprehensive
securities dispute resolution experience.
The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution is guided by the
mission of St. John’s University and is dedicated to the
development of conflict resolution as a value and as a practice in
our professional lives, our communities and our world. The
Securities Arbitration Clinic offers direct representation to the
under-served investor community in which clinic students provide
representation in unauthorized trading, unsuitability,
misrepresentation and failure to supervise cases under the Rules
and Procedures of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
(FINRA). FINRA is the largest dependent regulator of securities for
firms doing business in the United States and is dedicated to
investor protection and market integrity through effective and
efficient regulation and complementary compliance and
technology-based services.
The purpose of the triathlon is to promote responsible and ethical
lawyering in the securities industry while giving students the
opportunity to build their advocacy skills in the three critical
forms of alternative dispute resolution: negotiation, mediation,
and arbitration. During the first segment of the competition,
participants will negotiate a securities dispute in which some
teams will play the role of the investor’s counsel and others will
play the role of the counsel for the broker-dealer and/or
registered representative. Based upon a similar scenario, students
will then play the roles of clients and attorneys in the mediation
component of the competition. Lastly, on the second day of
competition, students on each team will play the role of the
attorney who presents the opening and direct, the attorney who
prepares the cross and summation, or the client in an arbitration
of a securities dispute.
Experienced arbitrators and mediators from FINRA will evaluate and
critique the student teams’ advocacy skills throughout the
competition. The team with the highest combined score in all three
areas will be named The Dispute Resolution Triathlon
winner. Awards will be given to teams with the highest score in
each of the components of the competition as well as to the team
with the highest overall rank.
In addition to representatives from St. John’s University, other
participating schools include Fordham, Pace, Quinnipiac, South
Texas, American (Washington College of Law), Duquesne, Florida,
Harvard, New York Law School, Penn State (Dickinson School of Law)
and Seton Hall.
For additional questions, please contact Elayne Greenberg, Director
of The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution, at greenbee@stjohns.edu.
For media inquiries, please contact Elizabeth Reilly, Assistant
Director of Media Relations at St. John’s by calling (718)
990-5789, or by email to reillye@stjohns.edu.