Working past midnight every night has paid off for a former Southlander who will represent New Zealand at the world negotiation championships in the United States next year.

Darren Adams, along with fellow law student Rob Davies, won the New Zealand law students negotiation championship, at the University of Auckland this month.

The competition, sponsored by Buddle Findlay, consisted of five preliminary rounds and the top two teams competed in a final.

In the final, Mr Adams and Mr Davies represented a client and negotiated either a transaction or the resolution of a dispute with an opposing team of two students.

Mr Adams, who is based in Tauranga and has worked as a police officer for the past 12 years, said he and Mr Davies were up past midnight every night preparing strategies, which included developing options to achieve a win/win for both sides and planning for what the opposing side may be trying to extract for their client.

The competition gave students a taste of what they may wish to specialise in and put the practical skills of the different facets of law into practice, he said.

"I am . . . specialising in dispute resolution so I'm hoping that the result will have a positive spinoff in that field of law in the future.

"After competing in numerous negotiations I now appreciate that everything has a value, so you must value everything," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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