Firm News
Fillmore Riley proudly sponsors the 2025 Robson Hall Negotiation Competition
Overview
Fillmore Riley LLP is proud to sponsor the Robson Hall Negotiation Competition for the sixteenth consecutive year.
The Twentieth Annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition, held on October 14, 2025, gave third-year students who were top performers in the Legal Negotiation course the opportunity to compete for the prestigious honour of representing Robson Hall in the Canadian National Negotiation Competition.
"I was delighted that Fillmore Riley continued its long-standing tradition of supporting this competition," said Professor Bruce Curran, a Robson Hall faculty member who helped organize the competition. Professor Curran explained, "The competition gives law students the opportunity to engage in negotiations like those that lawyers experience in practice and to receive feedback from the expert negotiators at Fillmore Riley. Through its generous sponsorship of the competition, Fillmore Riley demonstrated its understanding that the skill set required of lawyers is evolving, and that the ability to creatively and expeditiously resolve client concerns through effective negotiation is increasingly important."
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.
In teams of two, students representing one of the parties met with the other party to negotiate an agreement, with each team possessing confidential information about the background and their clients' settlement preferences. All negotiations took place under the ever-watchful eyes of Fillmore Riley judges, who scored each team's negotiation skills.
Fillmore Riley's lawyers have volunteered their time as judges for the competition since its inception. 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 served as this year's judges.
“I was extremely impressed at the caliber of judging of the Fillmore Riley lawyers, and the mentorship they provided to law students through this event,” said Professor Curran.
"Strong negotiation skills are essential to being a good lawyer," said Aaron Challis, a partner of Fillmore Riley and chair of the firm's Professional Recruitment Committee. 'We're proud to sponsor a competition that gives students the opportunity to refine their negotiation skills before they become practising lawyers."