Fifteenth Annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition a Success
Negotiation is a primary tool for solving a client’s problems: this competition encourages students to excel
Sixteen teams of Robson Hall students competed in the fifteenth annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition on the evening of October 29th, 2020. 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 a primary tool for accomplishing precisely that.
In this competition, two teams of two students, each representing opposing parties to a fictitious dispute or potential deal, meet in an attempt to reach a resolution or deal, with each team possessing confidential details about client circumstances and settlement preferences. This year the law students negotiated the creation of a fictitious partnership between two lawyers. All of this took place under the 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. This year, a number of innovations were introduced in order to adapt to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time ever, the competition was conducted using videoconferencing software, rather than occurring in person.
The event was generously sponsored by Fillmore Riley, which has been supporting the competition for over a decade. In addition to covering the competition costs and supplying prizes, lawyers from the firm volunteered to judge the students. These lawyers were Donald Baker, Alexander Favreau, Annika Friesen, Ari Hanson, Kate Hart, Jessica Isaak, Iain McDonald, 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 Reanna Blair and Menal Al Fekih were awarded first place. The runners up, who also did a tremendous job, were Braeden Cornick and Amber Harms.
Runner-up team of Braeden Cornick and Amber Harms.
Both teams are now eligible to represent Robson Hall and compete in the Canadian National Negotiation Competition, which will also be conducted virtually, in February of 2021. 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 Menal & Reanna and Amber & Braeden!