School af Law and FINRA Present “The First Annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon” October 17 and 18

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.