Twelfth Annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition a Success
Negotiation is the primary tool for solving a client’s problems: this competition encourages students to excel
Sixteen teams of Robson Hall students competed in the twelfth annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition on the evening of October 19th, 2017. 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 a partnership agreement for IT consulting, with issues including the allocation of the profits and the capital contribution each side would make. All this took place while the teams were under the ever-watchful eyes 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 Wes Burrows, Dana Nelko, Norman Yusim, Beth Eva, Dean Giles, Cheryl Frost, Annika Friesen, Aron Grusko, Mark Tallon, Rachel Loewen, Brynne Thordarson and Genevieve Mushaluk.
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 Tanci Carvalho and Kaitlin Buchko were awarded first place. The runners up, who also did a tremendous job, were Erin Evans and Alex Favreau. Both teams are now eligible to represent Robson Hall and compete in the Canadian Negotiation Competition, which will be held in Saskatoon in March of 2018. Robson Hall students have a long history of success in inter-school competitions: the winner of the 2014 Robson Hall competition 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 Tanci & Kaitlin and Erin & Alex!
Fillmore Riley LLP partner Wes J. Burrows (right) congratulates competition winners Tanci Carvalho (left) and Kaitlin Buchko (centre).
Competition runners-up Erin Evans (left) and Alex Favreau (centre) with Fillmore Riley LLP partner Wes J. Burrows.