Competition Teaches Robson Hall Students Vital Negotiation Skills
By Bruce Curran, Organizer of Competition, and Desautels Jurist: Workplace Law and Negotiation
Sixteen teams of Robson Hall students competed in the twentieth annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition on the evening of October 14th, 2025. These upper-year students were selected for having excelled in the Legal Negotiation course they took in their second year of law school.
The skill set required of lawyers is evolving, and the ability to creatively and expeditiously resolve client concerns through effective negotiation is increasingly important. The negotiation competition is designed to teach the knowledge, skills, attitudes, judgment, and values that are vital to law students’ success in legal practice. Such competencies include knowing key negotiation concepts; managing information and process; communicating and relationship-building; advocating for client interests in a problem-solving environment; internalizing ethical decision-making in negotiation; and engaging in reflective practice. The competition gives law students the opportunity to engage in negotiations like those that lawyers experience in practice and to receive feedback from expert negotiators.
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. The purpose of this year’s negotiation was for a wildlife sanctuary to hire an expert to assist with the development of bird and animal shows and additional programming to support eco-friendly tourism. The students negotiated an agreement on important points such as the expert’s duties and responsibilities, contract length, time commitment, and compensation.
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 have extensive knowledge about and experience in negotiations. They were: Ari Hanson, Kalev Anniko, Donald Baker, Amber Harms, Samantha Harvey, Hannah Humphries, Nick Noonan, Amelia Peterson, Tamara Reimer, Alexa Smith, Rhiannon Swan and Michael Zacharias.
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 Emily Dueck and Kate O’Rourke were awarded first place. The runners up, who also did a tremendous job, were Dena Aminzadeh and Mitchell Klippenstein. Both teams will now represent Robson Hall and compete in the Canadian National Negotiation Competition, which will be in Montreal at the l’Université de Sherbrooke – Campus de Longueuil on March 13th and 14th, 2026. 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.
The winning team. From left to right: Emily Dueck, Ari Hanson (competition judge) and Kate O’Rourke (photo credit: Daniel Cha).
The runner-up team. From left to right: Mitchell Klippenstein, Ari Hanson (competition judge, and Dena Aminzadeh (photo credit: Daniel Cha).
A sincere thanks to Fillmore Riley for its generous sponsorship of the competition.
Congratulations Emily & Kate and Dena & Mitchell!
The views and opinions expressed in the blogs and case reporter are the views of their authors, and do not represent the views of the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, the Faculty of Law, or the University of Manitoba. Academic Members of the University of Manitoba are entitled to academic freedom in the context of a respectful working and learning environment.