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HBS Students Negotiate a Victory

Chung and Kapadia: winning teamwork. (photo by Thomas J. Fitzsimmons)
Two students in the MBA/JD joint degree program took top honors at Harvard Law School's 79th annual Williston Competition in Contract Negotiation and Drafting. Patrick Chung and Aman Kapadia worked together over the course of six tension-filled days in March to draft a contract between a flight attendants union and an airline struggling to survive the turbulence of a postSeptember 11 environment. The pair will return to Soldiers Field this fall to complete the third year of the four-year program.
Describing the factors that contributed to their success, Chung credited tactics learned during the first year of studies in the classroom of HBS professor Max Bazerman, a negotiation specialist, as well as the ability to strategize and execute decisions as a team. “We trusted each other 100 percent,” Kapadia told the Harbus. “I was confident that Patrick would always say the right thing, and I think he felt that way as well.”
In the end, the HBS team (representing airline management) struck a creative deal that made the union a part owner of the airline, curtailed the union's right to strike, and indexed pay scales to profitability. “We concentrated on our common interests; the measure of our success was that both sides felt they got a great deal,” said Chung.
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