Thanks To Everyone Who Took The MoFo Communication Challenge
Here's a report on this educational and enjoyable event.
Law students from schools all over New York attended and competed in the Morrison & Foerster Effective Communication Challenge and Workshop, hosted by BARBRI and Above the Law on Friday, April 10. The event took place at the New York Bar Association building in midtown Manhattan. Students from Columbia, Washington and Lee, Seton Hall and others attended the workshop put on by the executive vice president of BARBRI, Dan Schoepf, and its director of strategic accounts, Alex Nodell.
To start the morning off, Schoepf had everyone write down a scenario in which they would need to be persuasive (quite applicable to law students in any year). Throughout his workshop on delivering information, persuading, and motivating, topics in which Schoepf is considered an expert, he urged the students to consider the points on the slide in the context of their personal scenario. In between the quotations, how-to lists, and video clips of his presentation, Schoepf entertained with witty quips and personal anecdotes and thus followed his own rule of three by conveying his Purpose, sticking to the Agenda, and knowing the Limits (of time).
Following the workshop, the students were divided up into teams and randomly assigned (via secret envelopes) a topic to argue. Each team had approximately an hour and a half to prepare a compelling five-minute argument to a board consisting of Schoepf, Nodell, MoFo chief recruiting officer Anand David, and ATL’s own Elie Mystal. The questions ranged from “Is it tacky to re-gift?” to “Should marijuana be legalized by all states?” The contestants were asked to integrate the concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos into their arguments (rather than just spouting out facts).
BARBRI provided lunch during the break, and the students spoke with associates from Morrison & Foerster about their experiences in law school and post-law school. Associates from MoFo who attended practice in several areas, including litigation, real-estate finance, and others.
Following each of the presentations, the groups received positive feedback from each of the judges as well as constructive criticism (even from Elie). After the judges deliberated, they announced the winners to be Andrew Eisbach of Cardozo Law and Stacy Landau of Seton Hall, who each received an Apple Watch.
During a brief Q-and-A, Elie Mystal fielded questions about prepping for something without much time and directing your energy correctly to an audience, or in some cases to a camera. Elie explained that it’s important when working with a limited amount of time to come up with a “tagline,” something you can point to as the crux of your argument. Everyone gets nervous, he said, “but can you choke it back for 10 seconds? If you can choke it back for 10 seconds, you can for a half hour.”
Thank you to BARBRI, Morrison & Foerster, and all the students who participated in this excellent event. For more information about future events, keep reading ATL and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Earlier: Take The ATL/MoFo Communication Challenge!
