Negotiation Workshop Series

Learn about negotiation as a tool for:

• Recognising negotiation moments in your legal role and learning effective ways to respond, manage disputes and prepare yourself and your client for potential outcomes.
• Recognising negotiation moments in your wider day-to-day activities, including employment, and how to deal with and respond to those moments effectively.

Through engaging activities, expert insights, and hands-on practice, you’ll gain the confidence and strategies needed to navigate challenging legal negotiations. You will also learn the tools effective negotiators use (and what tools not to use), as well as how to respond decisively when those tools are used against you.

The purpose of running a negotiations workshop series for law students is to equip them with the essential skills and confidence required to navigate legal negotiations effectively. Negotiation is a core aspect of legal practice, whether in contract discussions, dispute resolution, settlement agreements, or client advocacy.

Open to penultimate and final year students.

Workshop 1: Approach to a successful negotiation

This workshop will cover:

• The different schools of thought as to how best to approach a successful negotiation
• The presenter’s view as to what amounts to a successful negotiation, and why
• Basic tips and tricks;
• Entry level activities.

Workshop 2: Negotiation tips and tricks

Following on from the previous workshop, this workshop will cover the slightly more advanced tips and tricks anyone can use to achieve a successful negotiated outcome.

These techniques include:

• How to manage the difficult client
• The ‘he/she who talks first loses’ principle
• The ‘red herring’
• Intermediate level activities.

Workshop 3: Negotiation tips and tricks – continued

Following on from the previous workshop, this workshop will continue with a further overview of additional tips and tricks anyone can use to achieve a successful negotiated outcome, as well as consideration around how to effectively implement a plan B.

• Alternatives to monetary outcomes
• Useful phrases and tips to use in the moment
• What happens if settlement is not reached
• How to use a Calderbank effectively.

Kylie Chye
Career Development & Employer Engagement Manager
Email: kylie.chye@auckland.ac.nz