PRESIDENT’S CUP 2025 - Negotiation plan guidance for the First Round

Sep 26, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang

PRESIDENT’S CUP 2025 focuses on negotiation as a consensual way to reach agreement, emphasizing compromise, clear client instructions, and identifying both parties’ objectives and limits. It explains how effective negotiation practice is assessed for lawyers, outlining key competence components such as recognizing interests, developing options, evaluating the other side’s proposals, and concluding the negotiation appropriately. It then sets out the First Round requirement: preparing and submitting a written negotiation plan that defines issues, information needs, objectives, and strengths and weaknesses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Learning outcomes and competences

Effective negotiation practice components

Some suggested reading resources

The First Round

Written negotiation plan requirement

PRESIDENT’S CUP 2025 Negotiation is a consensual method of reaching agreement, including but not limited to resolving disputes. For a negotiation to produce a result, each side needs to be in a position to compromise. This means having clear instructions about what it critical to your client, and what can be “traded” in the interests of achieving other goals. Consequently, it is important not only to know what your own client’s goals are, but also to identify, as far as you can, what the goals of the other side are. If there is nothing to be traded, then the negotiation is unlikely to achieve a result other than the parties walking away, unless one party is prepared to concede entirely to the other’s demands. Even when a negotiation breaks down, however, important information may have been shared. Learning outcomes and competences Negotiation is an important skill for both contentious and non-contentious lawyers. SQE2 applicants are tested on negotiation1 and pupil barristers2 are expected to have exposure to negotiation in practice. The BSB’s and SRA’s competence statements set out useful lists of the components of effective negotiation practice: | Professional Statement for Barristers, 1.73 | Statement of Solicitor Competence, B.64 | | --- | --- | | Negotiate effectively | Negotiate solutions to clients' issues, including. | | They will be able to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of the client’s case and that of all other parties and to seek an outcome by negotiation which is in the best interests of the client. | | 1 Solicitors Regulation Authority, ‘SQE2 Assessment Specification’ (SQEWebsite, April 2024) <[https://sqe.sra.org.uk/exam](https://sqe.sra.org.uk/exam)arrangements/assessment-information/sqe2-assessment-specification> accessed 23 July 2025. 2 BSB, ‘The Bar Qualification Manual’ (Bar Standards Board, 2025) <[https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/training](https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/training)qualification/bar-qualification-manual-new. html?part=&q=negotiation> accessed 23 July 2025, 3. 15ff. 3 Bar Standards Board, ‘The Professional Statement for Barristers’ (Bar Standards Board, September 2016) < bsbprofessionalstatementandcompetences2016 . pdff> accessed 31 July 2025. 4 Solicitors Regulation Authority, ‘Statement of Solicitor Competence’ (Solicitors Regulation Authority, 8 September 2022)<[https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/resources/continuing-competence/competence-statement/](https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/resources/continuing-competence/competence-statement/)> accessed 23 July 2025 | Professional Statement for Barristers, 1.73 | Statement of Solicitor Competence, B.64 | | --- | --- | | Barristers should: | | | a) Identify in so far as possible all parties’interests, objectives and limits. | a. Identifying all parties’ interests, objectives and limits | | b) Develop and formulate best options for meeting the client’s objectives. | b. Developing and formulating best options for meeting parties' objectives | | c) Present options for resolution cogently. | c. Presenting options for compromise persuasively | | d) Recognise, evaluate and respond to options presented by the other side. | d. Responding to options presented by the other side | | e) Develop appropriate compromises consistent with the client’s instructions. | e. Developing compromises between options or parties | | f) Bring the negotiation to an appropriate conclusion. | | Some suggested reading resources Coburn C,‘Negotiation Conflict Styles’(Harvard University No date) < [https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/fi](https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/fi)les/assets/Sites/Ombuds/files/NegotiationConflictStyles. pdf> accessed 23 July 2025Fisher R and Ury W, Getting Past No: Negotiating With Difficult People (Random House Business 1992) Fisher R, Ury WL and Patton B, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (3rd Revised ed, Penguin Books 2011) Harvard Law School,‘Welcome to the Teaching Ne

FAQs

What is the purpose of negotiation in this document?

Negotiation is presented as a consensual method for reaching agreement by resolving disputes and achieving a result through compromise.

What competences are highlighted for effective negotiation practice?

The document stresses identifying interests and limits, developing best options, presenting resolution options persuasively, responding to the other side’s options, making appropriate compromises, and bringing the negotiation to an appropriate conclusion.

What must be prepared for the First Round of the competition?

Participants must prepare and submit a written negotiation plan outlining the issues requiring negotiation, the information to be obtained from the other party, and the negotiation meeting structure and tactical approach.

Sep 26, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang