Firm News
Fillmore Riley proudly sponsors the 2026 Robson Hall Negotiation Competition
Overview
Fillmore Riley LLP is proud to sponsor the Robson Hall Negotiation Competition for the seventeenth consecutive year.
The 21st Annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition, held on October 14, 2026, 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 am thrilled that Fillmore Riley has continued to support this competition,” said Professor Leif Jensen, a Robson Hall faculty member who helped organize the competition. Professor Jensen explained that “the competition allows law students to engage in realistic negotiations, like those that lawyers experience in practice, and to receive excellent expert feedback from the lawyers at Fillmore Riley. Through it’s generous, long-term, sponsorship of this competition, Fillmore Riley demonstrated that it understands that the skill set required of lawyers is ever-evolving, and that the ability to creatively and efficiently resolve client concerns through negotiation is increasingly important.”
The purpose of this year’s negotiation was for a cosmetics company to partner with the owner of an organic grocery chain to develop a new line of natural cosmetics made with organic, responsibly sourced ingredients. The students negotiated an agreement on important points such as the owner’s role in product development and ingredient approval, the length of her time commitment, her consulting compensation, licensing and royalties for use of her company’s logo, and how long the product line would stay on the market.
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 lawyers have volunteered their time as judges for the competition since its inception. Ari Hanson, Avril Brown, Annika Friesen, Chris Klassen, Josh Lieberman, Nick Noonan, Dan Patriarca, Tamara Reimer, Julia Ryckman, Jenna Seavers, Mike Zacharias, and Fillmore Riley alumnus Norm Yusim served as this year’s judges.
“The ability to negotiate effectively is at the heart of good legal practice,” said Ari Hanson, a partner at Fillmore Riley and chair of the firm’s Professional Recruitment Committee. “We’re pleased to support a competition that lets students build that skill in a practical setting before they enter the profession.”