Two undergraduate law students at Kent Law School were placed joint second in the UK Sports Law Competition (UKSLC) hosted by Gateley at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester in June 2024. The competition involved teams from 24 universities around the UK.
The Kent team consisted of Dr Lauren Montgomery from Canada and Vanadia Permall Husraj from Mauritius, both first year Senior Status students on the LLB Law programme at Kent Law School and coached by Senior Lecturer, Johanne Thompson.
UKSLC has organised this competition for several years. Students compete in teams of two to test their ability to think commercially and negotiate a settlement when faced with legal problems within the sports industry. The scenarios are based on fictitious but topical problems: this year, the scenarios consisted of a doping scandal and a ban in both tennis and cycling. There was a short masterclass at the start of the day which was designed to give the students a brief introduction to some of the key points to conducting a negotiation. This was given by Dominic Wilford from bridge][ability.
This competition aims to find the most effective negotiators who gather information during the negotiation, make good use of active listening whilst strategising and proposing a range of potential offers. At times, they had to maintain areas of confidentiality as instructed by their briefs and were told to reach a resolution by the end of the negotiation.
As Lauren says: “It was a wonderful experience to participate in the Gateley Sports Law Negotiation Competition 2024! The introductory workshop from bridge][ability helped me hone my understanding of the complexity of relationships and nuance in negotiation. 
I learned how to focus my negotiation strategy on ensuring that parties leave the negotiation feeling satisfied. The Gateley negotiation scenarios were exciting, complex, and highly nuanced. Competing was a thrill. It allowed us to focus on collaborative negotiation where we could bring our creative and innovative proposals to the table.”
Speaking about her experience, Vanadia says that: “Competing in the negotiation competition sharpened my strategic thinking, persuasive communication, and problem-solving skills. The experience taught me the value of preparation, adaptability, and finding mutually beneficial solutions in high-pressure situations. I am deeply grateful for the training offered by Darren and the invaluable guidance from Johanne. The lawyering skills modules and the coaching sessions from Johanne helped me hone my ability to listen actively, think critically, and negotiate effectively.”
Johanne Thompson (convenor of the Negotiation module at KLS) was thrilled to support the team in this sports negotiation as Sports Law is becoming increasingly popular. She says that: “competing in areas of law that are not one of the core modules in the law curriculum is both interesting and important to those who want a career in a niche area, such as sports law. This competition offers a unique opportunity to test their negotiation skills in a very popular area of law. I’m extremely proud that the team were joint runners up in this prestigious competition and in such a fabulous location – Etihad Stadium.”