Seeking Clients for ABA Client Counseling Competition
Professors Bowman and Adams are seeking a few students to serve as clients for the on-line regional client counseling competition that Stetson will be co-hosting with Boston University the weekend of February 11 and 12. No advocacy experience or acting experience is required (but please let us know if you have prior experience in acting, as that may affect where we place you.)
A special note for 1L students: Serving as a client will make it possible for you to learn more about Stetson’s advocacy programs in advance of our spring tryouts. There will be an informational session this spring, but this will give you a nice preview of one type of competition in which our Dispute Resolution Board participates, each year.
We have a limited number of slots available on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. To serve as a client on Friday afternoon, we would need for you to be logged onto Zoom with a stable internet connection no later than 12:30 p.m. on Friday, February 11 and to be available until 4:30 p.m. that day. For Saturday morning, we would need for you to be logged onto Zoom with a stable internet connection no later than 8:30 a.m. and to be available until 11:00 a.m.
If you commit to serving as a client, please understand that this is a firm commitment: the competition cannot go forward without a client in each and every room.
There will be a detailed orientation prior to the competition, but we did want to go ahead and give you some preliminary information regarding what the role would entail. Every client will play a role based on a script, to be provided to you at least several days prior to the competition. The students who interview you will, of course, not have access to this script, so you must keep it entirely confidential. You will want to spend enough time with the script that you are able to respond without reading.
You would play the same role for three teams (Friday) or two teams (Saturday morning), each of which will have forty-five minutes to interview you and ask you questions. Clients must make every effort to play their role consistently. For example, if clients act nervous during the first round, they should maintain that same demeanor during succeeding rounds. If they make up facts during the first round, those same facts should be used in the following rounds. If a client makes a mistake or goes “off script” the client must make the same mistake in subsequent rounds to avoid inadvertently benefitting one team over another.
If you have any questions, please let us know,
Professor Adams and Professor Bowman