Cooley Law School students Amanda Demitrish (left) and Shannon DeWall pose with Professor Dustin Foster after earning second place in the Region 6 ABA Negotiation Competition in Ottawa.
Photo courtesy of Cooley Law
By Debra Talcott
Legal News
The cosmopolitan city of Ottawa, Canada will forever be a source of good memories for Cooley-Auburn Hills students Amanda Demitrish and Shannon DeWall, but not for its famous cathedral, art museum, or fine dining.
It was there that Demitrish and DeWall earned Cooley a second place ranking in the Region 6 American Bar Association (ABA) Negotiation Competition held last month.
The pair solidified their standing, with a total score only slightly lower than the first place team from Ohio State University, by winning the final-and most difficult-round of negotiation.
Under the leadership of Professors Nancy Wonch and Dustin Foster, Demitrish and DeWall have earned the right to advance to the ABA National Negotiation Competition to be held in New Orleans Feb. 3-4.
“Professor Wonch set the agenda for our training, went to Ottawa with us, and coached us through the final problem,” says Demitrish. “To prepare for the Region 6 competition, we met every Saturday from the start of the term until the competition and worked with Professor Foster and twice went to Lansing to work with the Cooley — Lansing team and Professor Wonch.”
The ABA Law Student Division Negotiation Competition provides a forum for law students to practice their negotiation skills.
Through a series of simulations, the students act as lawyers and negotiate a number of legal problems.
The simulations mimic actual negotiations in that a common set of facts is known by all parties, but each side is privy to separate details pertinent only to its own participants.
“This year’s topic is real property,” says DeWall, “and in the final round Amanda and I represented a homeowner whose son had hosted a party and someone had been injured on the property during the party. The opposing team represented the injured woman and her parents.”
All of the simulations in a given competition deal with a single topic, but each round challenges the students with a new situation and an increasing level of difficulty.
“In the first round, we represented the buyer of a $2.5 million home,” explains Demitrish. In the second round we represented the same client in discussions with the neighborhood association regarding problems with his son, for whom he had bought the house.”
Both DeWall and Demitrish are students in Cooley’s part-time, five-year program and expect to graduate in May 2015. Prior to partnering in the competition, they had met in the Torts class and the Research and Writing class.
While they are at the same level at Cooley, it is their diverse backgrounds and work experiences prior to starting law school that give this team the talents they bring to the table.
DeWall graduated from the University of Michigan in 1998 with an M.S. in human genetics. Since that time she has worked as a genetic counselor specializing in prenatal and infertility problems.
In addition to working her full time job and staying active in her church, DeWall is a wife and mother of two young sons. A masterful “juggler,” she makes spending time with her family a priority.
DeWall credits Cooley’s flexible schedule for making it possible for students with busy lives to pursue a law degree.
She explains that she had just made the commitment to start law school when she found out she was pregnant with her second baby (with a then 10-month-old child at home).
Demitrish brings her own unique set of skills to the team. She has worked for General Motors in the area of government contracts, first as a contract worker then as a regular employee since 1993.
Prior to that she owned a small catering company, taught cooking in community education programs, and worked in a variety of restaurants as a baker, bartender, waitress, and manager.
With a B.B.A. from Wayne State University and an M.S. in corporate finance from Walsh College, she intends to practice business transactions law.
“I chose this area because I have worked in the corporate world for many years,” she said, “even before my experience in government contracting. If I add a legal degree to this, I will be of more value in the corporate setting.”
Demitrish says her many years of schooling taught her to be disciplined and to make time for study, but she says attending law school has added a new dimension.
“At 53, I am an older student, and going through this process has been an extremely rewarding experience,” she said.
Demitrish has fond memories of watching the popular television series of the 1950s and 1960s, “Perry Mason,” with her father when she was growing up.
Sadly, Demitrish’s father passed away just a few weeks before she participated in the competition in Ottawa.
“He would have been thrilled to hear of my success. After all, when I told people I had decided to go to law school, most thought I was a little crazy, but my dad said, ‘It’s about time!’”
The other man cheering on Demitrish’s return to school is her husband Daniel. Before her law school commitment, Demitrish used to take major responsibility for the inside household duties, and Daniel would care for the outside duties on their home and five acres.
“Daniel has been extremely supportive — picking up the slack in the household responsibilities and offering encouragement,” she said.
Demitrish also cites Cooley’s flexible program as a good fit for the rest of her busy life.
After competing in Ottawa, both Demitrish and DeWall say they enjoyed the collegial atmosphere of their experience and call the feedback from the judges “invaluable.”
The women will now prepare for the national competition in New Orleans.
They will receive the problem for the final level of competition in mid-January then begin weekly meetings with their coaches, Professor Foster and Professor Wonch, to brainstorm ideas.
Demitrish said Wonch and Foster “have been incredibly helpful and generous with their time.” Each offers us a unique insight to the problem and to the way Shannon and I interact with each other and the competition.”
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