Community
February 15, 2021
Shortland Chambers is proud to sponsor the University of Auckland’s mediation team, which has beaten 47 other teams to win the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition for the third year running. The other finalists were Sofia University (Bulgaria), New South Wales University, and Brooklyn Law School.
This prestigious international competition is contested by 48 universities from around the world. 39 countries are represented, and the competition is judged by professional mediators and trainers. Over 250 students and coaches, and over 120 professional mediators and mediator trainers, participate. Teams compete to resolve international business disputes through mediation. The competition is highly respected in the international mediation world.
This was the first year that the competition was hosted online. The team swapped the luxury of Paris (the usual host city) for a meeting room at Chambers with offices loaned by Daniel McLellan QC, Bronwyn Carruthers, and Nic Scampion. The competition operated on Paris time, so the team had to deal with a series of early starts and late nights on their journey to the final.
The team was Andrew O’Malley Shand, Arianna Bacic, Britney Clasper and Bronwyn Wilde, and their coaches were Isabelle Kwek and Matthew Jackson. Additional mentoring and expert advice were provided by some of New Zealand’s commercial mediators, including Geoff Sharp, Nina Khouri and Nic Scampion.
The team’s success is a testament to their skill, the quality of the coaching they received, and the environment and culture of the University of Auckland. For more information about the competition, visit
