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Arbitration & Mediation

Settle It Now Negotiation Blog

Everything you always wanted to know about negotiation but were afraid to ask. From Victoria Pynchon.
By Victoria Pynchon

Post Frequency: 12.5/day

Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 19:26:33

Diane Levin Hits Mediator Credentialing Out of the Ballpark

Posted on July 29, 2009
Many ADR bloggers (including me) have written extensively about the imposition of standards or the implementation of "best practices" in mediation. This week, Diane Levin at the Mediation Channel, hits the issue out of the ballpark, summaizing the arguments on both sides; providing solid resources for study and analysis; and, raising the important issues the mediation community will ignore to its detriment...

Is Starting an ADR Practice to Weather the Recession Like Choosing a Niche in Bobbleheads?

Posted on July 28, 2009
This month's ABA Magazine suggests that an ADR practice might provide attorneys with a recession-proof (or downturn-friendly) practice: On ABAJournal.com, readers were asked to name some of the lesser-mentioned practices where an attorney might find refuge from this recessionary storm...

Maureen Dowd Chats with Skip Gates at the New York Times

Posted on July 26, 2009
Maureen Dowd correctly notes in today's NYTimes column Bite Your Tongue, that "race, class and testosterone will always be a combustible brew. Our first African-American president will try to make the peace with Gates (who supported Hillary) and Crowley (whose father voted for Obama)...

The Cop The President The Professor and Civil Harassment Mediation

Posted on July 25, 2009
It's merely coincidental that I volunteered to mediate civil harassment petitions for the first time during the same week as Gatesgate. (for the legal eagles, here's the law on disorderly conduct in one's own home vs. on one's own porch form today's L...

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Mediating Civil Harassment Petitions with a Few More Thoughts on Gatesgate

Posted on July 25, 2009
Some people are so dangerous and some situations so volatile that restraining orders are of little use. Consider this tragic tale of the courthouse shooting of a woman who had "secured restraining orders that prohibited [her former husband] from possessing or carrying any firearms, that ordered him to turn over his firearms to his lawyer, and that prohibited [him] from being 'within 100 yeards of any firearm' while in the presence of [his ex-wife] Eileen and [the couple's] children...

Delivering Justice in Community Mediation

Posted on July 24, 2009
It's All About Reaching Neighborly Solutions FORUM COLUMN Daily Journal, July 24, 2009 By Victoria Pynchon Nearly every condominium complex harbors an outlaw - the man, woman, couple or family who refuses to follow the rules, such as the college kids who blast the woofers off their stereo system at 3 a...

Three Guys Walk into the White House for a Beer

Posted on July 24, 2009
I'm happy to see that Obama has asked Gates and Crowley up to the White House for a beer. Breaking a longstanding tradition of ignoring racial conflict, Obama has officially invited Cambridge police officer James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr...

Negotiating the Resolution of Civil Harassment Complaints

Posted on July 23, 2009
It's good to step into a small claims or limited jurisdiction court from time to time to see how ordinary people's disputes are resolved, usually without counsel. Yesterday, as I sat in the small claims department of a local branch court, I wondered why the one-hour court trial I was observing hadn't been resolved in mediation...

The American Arbitration Association Gives Up Consumer Debt Collection Disputes as Well

Posted on July 22, 2009
See the Wall Street Journal article Credit Card Disputes Tossed into Disarray on NAF's settlement with the State of Minnesota and the AAA's decision to "stop participating in consumer-debt-collection disputes until new guidelines are established...

Negotiating Democracy: a Moving History Lesson

Posted on July 18, 2009

The Benefits of Being Candid with the Mediator: A Guest Post by Attorney Gregory Nerland

Posted on July 17, 2009
This is a guest post by litigator and mediator of Gregory Nerland of Akawie & LaPietra in Walnut Creek, California. You can follow Nerland on Twitter here. The photo is from Twitter - hence its casual nature. I reviewed with some dismay the July 12, 2009, post titled Mediators' Proposals: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which seemed to endorse counsel who deceive the mediator to push the negotiations to a mediator's proposal...

Minnesota Says National Arbitration Forum "Front" for Debt Collectors

Posted on July 14, 2009
From David Sugarman's Oregon Class Action Blog, Bombshell: State of Minnesota Sues National Arbitration Forum. The State of Minnesota filed a lawsuit against National Arbitration Forum, a leading arbitration provider, claiming that NAF is a front for debt collectors and their law firms and not an independent arbitration service...

Negotiating Earn Out Provisions in M&A Transactions

Posted on July 13, 2009
Via twitter this morning just in case the powers that be at manatt are still wondering whether it's worthwhile to have a twitter account. David Grinberg to Discuss the Negotiation of Earnout Provisions in M&A Deals Manatt partner David Grinberg will discuss the negotiation of earnout provisions in M&A deals during a live webinar hosted by Strafford on July 14, 2009 from 1:00-2:30 Eastern...

Mediators' Proposals: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Posted on July 12, 2009
At the close of the year, our good friend John DeGroote at Settlement Perspectives asked whether mediators' proposals had lost their utility. Now that parties "know the mediator's proposal is coming," he wrote, savvy negotiators angle for an advantageous impasse rather than a settlement...

Negotiating Unity: Gettysburg, Rhetoric and Poetry

Posted on July 10, 2009
Gettysburg View more presentations from Victoria Pynchon. We hear a lot of talk these days about rhetoric and whether people are able to follow through on it, deliver "the goods", stay true to the rule. We live in a cynical age and diminish rhetoric as if it were all just a slick sales presentation and we its potentially gullible consumers...

Mediation of Insurance Disputes in the London Market

Posted on July 08, 2009
This just in from 11 Stone Buildings on the Resolution of Commercial Insurance and Reinsurance Disputes - A Move Towards Mediation in the London Market? David Stern's latest bulletin on insurance and mediation is now available to download on the link above...

Negotiating Resolution on the 4th of July

Posted on July 04, 2009
I worry sometimes that I write too much in generalities -- praising joint sessions; exploring the social psychological implications of the adversarial system; or arguing with my imaginary detractors - the ones I believe are hectoring me to be more practical...

And Now a Word from Mediators Beyond Borders on Climate Change

Posted on July 02, 2009
By Kenneth Cloke The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference -- What You Can Do In December 2009, delegates from around the world will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)...

Deal or No Deal: Improving the Odds of Successful Mediation

Posted on July 02, 2009
Need CLE Credits? Mark your calendars! The American Bar Association Section of Litigation will hold a live teleconference and webcast on July 14, 2009 titled 'Deal or No Deal: Improving the Odds of Successful Mediation.' Reinsurance and Insurance expert Katherine Billingham from KB ReSolutions, Inc...

Negotiating God: a Sunday Reflection

Posted on June 28, 2009
According to Robert Wright in The Evolution of God (reviewed in todays NYT Book Review by Paul Bloom) "God has mellowed" from a capricious tyrant into non-zero-sum playing diety. This is good news for mediators and anyone else in search of a better paradigm for conflict resolution than the 16th century adversarial system...

Negotiating from a Position of Weakness Hollywood Style

Posted on June 26, 2009
When last we left Ari and Terrence negotiating Ari's compensation Terrence had ceremoniously offered Ari "NOTHING!!!" But we're not talking only money here. We're talking power and agency in the psychological sense, i.e., agency as the capacity to control one's own future...

The Insulting Opening Offer

Posted on June 26, 2009
Does it ever serve a purpose?

Put Conflict Resolution on the Climate Change Conference Agenda

Posted on June 24, 2009
Place: Glyptoteket, Copenhagen Date: The 10th and 11th December 2009 During eleven days in December 2009 delegates from throughout the world will meet in Copenhagen for the 15th Conference of the Parties – COP15 – to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC...

Negotiating with North Korea

Posted on June 23, 2009
Check out today's ADR Prof Blog post What are their interests? Negotiating with North Korea. Excerpt below. North Korea recently sentenced two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the North Korean border...

Sotomayor and Women's Organizations

Posted on June 19, 2009
Women in the United States Judiciary 2009 State Court Judges in the US: 4,325 women of 16,950 total 26% women 2008 Federal Court Judges 47 of 164 active judges on the thirteen federal courts of appeal are male (29%). 25% of United States district (or trial) court judges were women in 2008...

An Interview with Michael Young on the $4.1 Billion Arbitration Award

Posted on June 17, 2009
Anatomy of an Arbitration Disaster Amanda Bronstad The National Law Journal June 17, 2009 A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on May 28 affirmed an arbitration award of more than $4.1 billion, sending shock waves through the labor and employment bar in California...

Negotiating Cooperation

Posted on June 15, 2009
Cooperation View more OpenOffice presentations from Victoria Pynchon.

More Praise for Joint Sessions in Today's Daily Journal

Posted on June 09, 2009
JUNE 9, 2009 | FORUM When It Comes to Joint Session Negotiations, Talk Isn't Cheap By Victoria Pynchon Whether parties to litigation should engage in joint session bargaining at some point in the process is a hot topic at the moment because joint session practice is nearly a dead letter in one of the most active and sophisticated mediation markets: Los Angeles...

Negotiating Justice: Anchoring, Bias, Dad and Sotomayor

Posted on June 09, 2009
I do not recall the day on which I learned I spoke with an "American" or "West Coast" accent but I remember it coming as a surprise to me. As Cristof, the director of The Truman Show says of his "creation," the happily oblivious Truman Burbank, 'We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented...

Foreclosure Mediation Becomes Mandatory in Connecticut

Posted on June 08, 2009
So much for the mediation carrot & the principle that "mediation is a voluntary process." Foreclosure Mediation Becomes Mandatory Program staffing, caseload expected to double By DOUGLAS S. MALAN A voluntary foreclosure mediation program has worked so well in the eyes of legislators that the General Assembly pushed through a measure to make the program mandatory starting July 1...

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