Alternative Dispute Resolution Society

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Society (“ADR Society”) is a student-run body within Jindal Global Law School that is an official institutionally recognized body in charge of ADR Competitions and Training. The ADR Society works to harness the efforts of students towards the common goal of the development of ADR processes through student initiatives, competitions and intellectual discourse. The vision of the society is to spread awareness about ADR within the student community; organize ADR training for students as well as organizing career-centric ADR certification; organize conferences, public lectures and other events such as ADR competitions; promote ADR related research among students. The ADR Society has an extremely sophisticated and logistically grounded approach in conducting its induction process as it attracts over 1500+ potential applications every year, giving us the much needed and relevant experience in understanding and working towards a large-scale event.

Through the enthusiastic and consistent participation of its members, the ADR Society, JGLS has been one of the most successful ADR societies across India and the Asia-Pacific Region over the years with multiple achievements and recognition at the highest level across national and international ADR Competitions. For the 2020-2021 session, the ADR Society has received the Best Accomplished Society Award, Most Accomplished Society Award, Most Active Society Award, University Wide at the University Day Awards, 2021. The student convenors have also consistently been receiving the Best Society Coordinator (University Wide) Award.

The ADR Society organizationally comprises a Faculty & Student Board that allows for the presence of a i) clear and consistent authorization & communication chain ii) Well defined mandate & demarcation of duties iii) Faculty guidance, both qualitative and administrative in the functioning of the society, allowing the society to maximize institutional competency & equity in each of its processes by design.

The ADR Society, JGLS inductions are arguably the toughest and most challenging society based induction in JGLS having an acceptance rate of less than 9% amongst the students from all batches and years of law school. The society received more than 1500 applications for the present year inductions. The inductions are carried out yearly and membership to the society needs to be regained each year by qualifying the Induction process.

The ADR Society overlooks the entire Induction Process to maintain the sanctity and responsibility of the induction process. The Inductions are a multi – tiered, Three Stage Process- The first two stages of the society induction process require the team members to design a mediation plan for a mock mediation problem with a strict 5 hour time limit, well prepared instructions and marking criteria. Teams are eliminated on both the first as well the second stage. The set of teams that qualify to the third round participate in a mock mediation round with another selected team. The students are marked by reputed and highly qualified professionals who are externally invited to judge these rounds. Upon the basis of the marks received in the third round, the students are ranked. The students are forbidden from seeking any external help during these rounds. Thereafter, competitions are allocated via an open bidding procedure.

However, Unlike most competitions, where competitions are allotted through a rank based-bidding process, prestigious competitions like ICC Paris, ICC Australia, CDRC Vienna and Warsaw Negotiation Round require the students to undergo a rigorous screening process with the JGLS ADR Society Faculty Board. Before the process, the students are required to submit their CVs, past ADR competition experience and SOP on the basis of which the ADR Society Faculty Board releases the “Call for Applications”. The screening process assesses the students on their understanding of mediation, requires them to think on the spot and undergo challenger rounds involving the complexities of a hypothetical mediation. The ADR Society Faculty Board then selects students on the basis of their past merit and performance in the screening process.

Once allocated/ selected, the teams are required to take part in over 30 mock practise rounds on average per team, mediated by accredited mediators and student judges and coaches. The JGLS ADR Society Faculty Board supervises these rounds and also provides continuous feedback.