Fourteenth Annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition a Success

Negotiation is the primary tool for solving a client’s problems: this competition encourages students to excel

October 18, 2019 —

Sixteen teams of Robson Hall students competed in the thirteenth annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition on the evening of October 17^th, 2019. These third-year students were selected for having excelled in the Legal Negotiation course they took in their second year of law school. The main purpose of the competition is to develop superb negotiating skills in Robson Hall graduates. All legal training and professional expertise is directed toward one key objective—solving a client’s problems. Negotiation is the primary tool for accomplishing precisely that.

In teams of two, the students met with another team representing the other side, each team possessing confidential details about their client’s circumstances and settlement preferences. This year, students negotiated the legal issues associated with the dissolution of a fictitious partnership between two lawyers. All this took place under the close scrutiny of the judges who scored each team’s negotiation skills. At the end of each session, the judges provided detailed feedback to each team about what they did well, and potential areas for improvement.

The event was generously sponsored by Fillmore Riley, which has a very long history of supporting the competition. In addition to covering all competition costs and supplying cash prizes, lawyers from the firm volunteered to judge the students. These lawyers were Donald Baker, Jasmine Bissoon, Alexander Favreau, Annika Friesen, Ari Hanson, Jessica Isaak, Rachel Loewen, Ranish Raveendrabose, Keith Senden, Brynne Thordarson, Delaney Vun, and Kelsey Yakimoski.

These judges were tremendously impressed with the caliber of the students’ negotiations, and were faced with the unenviable task of selecting a winner. Due to their stellar performance, the negotiating team of Anjali Sandhu and David Thiessen were awarded first place. The runners up, who also did a tremendous job, were Caleb Henry and Meghan Jede. Both teams are now eligible to represent Robson Hall and compete in the Canadian National Negotiation Competition, which will be held in Fredericton in February of 2020. Robson Hall students have a long history of success in inter-school competitions: the winner of the 2014 Robson Hall competition even went on to win the 2015 International Negotiation Competition in Dublin, Ireland.

A sincere thanks to Fillmore Riley for its generous sponsorship of the competition.

Congratulations Anjali & David and Caleb & Meghan!

Story submitted by Dr. Bruce Curran.

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