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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

Contract Negotiations: "a Sophisticated Ballet Often Ending in Mid-Pirouette"

Posted on February 28, 2008
Negotiations of the type I mediate on a regular basis are rarely the subject of appellate opinions -- at least not the part of negotiations we call the "dance." Having stumbled across this opinion while searching for something else, I couldn't resist the pulll of posting it here -- both for my readers' enjoyment and, frankly, using the blog as my own personal filing cabinet for some of my favorite appellate opinions (yes, I am a geek!)...

Check Out This Terrific Power Point Presentation on Commercial Mediation Ethics

Posted on February 27, 2008
(right, me and Geoff -- not the most flattering photo of either of us but proof that we blogging mediators do in fact get together in "real time" and geographical space from time to time)Thanks to Geoff Sharp for posting Dwight Golann's and Ellen Waldman's Power Point on Commercial Mediation Ethics, courtesy of Professor Michael Moffit at the ADR Prof Blog here...

Mediation Advocacy: The Litigation Narrative

Posted on February 27, 2008
In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Dante Alighieri When the journey turns from litigation to mediation, it's helpful to remember that we litigators are classic Hollywood hyphenates -- the writers-directors-actors of our client's story -- and that our client has generally moved more and more into the background as the "executive" producer, i...

Mediation Advocacy: How to Help Your Client Help You Help Him

Posted on February 26, 2008
Help me... help you. Help me, help you. Jerry McguireTwo short-short stories. Both to acquaint you with who I was as a litigator and how I can help you as a mediator.A Born MoralistI was on the telephone with my client talking about a Rand Corp...

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Barack Interest-Based and Hillary Zero Sum?

Posted on February 25, 2008
The Daily Kos speculates on Hillary and Barack's different negotiation styles as being attributable to the lack of negotiation classes in the law schools of Hillary's and my era and the presence of those classes in Barack's era here.Maybe that's why Obama appeals to me so...

Cross-Cultural Negotiation Insights from the Kellogg School of Management

Posted on February 25, 2008
When you mediate disputes in a major urban center like Los Angeles, you do a lot of cross-cultural negotiation as a matter of course. I've relied in the past upon the Kellogg School of Management's Leigh Thompson and am happy to report that one of her fellow professors, Jeanne Brett has devoted an entire book to the intricacies of negotiating across cultural lines...

Off-Shoring Dispute Resolution to India?

Posted on February 25, 2008
The Hindu News Update Service reports on the emergence of online dispute resolution in India here. Let me just say this. There cannot be too many people practicing mediation. There can only be too few.Excerpt below.Online Dispute Resolution involving mediation and arbitration with the help of technology, was emerging as a branch of dispute resolution, Chief Justice of Kerala, H L Dattu said on Saturday...

Diane Levin and Jim Melamed on Presidential Negotiation Styles

Posted on February 25, 2008
There is no golden age, nor any "right" candidate (I'm still hoping for a Clinton-Obama ticket and no I don't care whose name is above the title; I'm for marrying vision with experience instead of wasting everyone's considerable contributions on a Democratic firing squad -- a CIRCLE)...

Negotiating a Culture Inimical to Emotional and Physical Abuse

Posted on February 24, 2008
I saw Athol Fugard's disturbing play Victory tonight at the Fountain Theatre (local L.A. Weekly Review here). As the Weekly writes, "[w]here and how to direct one's rage is the drama's unanswerable, theological question."I returned home to a reader comment on my Zimbardo post Avoiding Evil and Promoting Good, directing my readers to the Situationist which recently posted a Zimbardo lecture: Genocide to Abu Ghraib: How Good People Turn Evil...

And the Gutsy Arbitrator Award of the Decade Goes to . . . .

Posted on February 23, 2008
. . . the Honorable Sam Cianchetti, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge (ret.) for his decision awarding $8.4 million in punitive damages, for a total $9 million award, against Health Net In the Arbitration between Patsy Bates and Health Net, et al...

Negotiation, Mediation, Legal Careers, and the Rule of Law

Posted on February 23, 2008
For more hilarious law cartoons by the fabulous Charles Fincher, click here.Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of speaking to, and then participating in a mock mediation with, Lisa Klerman's USC Law School Mediation Clinic students.Among these bright, energetic, earnest law students are some who would like to make mediation a career before a period of sufferance in the rights and remedies business...

Riegel v. Medtronic: An Opportunity for Industry and the Government to Do the Right Thing

Posted on February 21, 2008
What does the decision in Riegel v. Medtronic have to do with dispute resolution? A lot if we collectively pause to commit ourselves to using this calamity/victory as an opportunity to benefit both industry and the public at the same time...

Upcoming International Dispute Resolution Conferences

Posted on February 21, 2008
These items come unsolicited in my email box. I'm not recommending, but simply sharing, them with you.The Australasian Forum for International Arbitration (AFIA) will hold its 13th Symposium in Hong Kong, on Saturday, 8 March 2008. Attendance is free of charge...

Proud Supporter of the Rule of Law in America

Posted on February 20, 2008
I know I've steered pretty wide of negotiation recently. But I worry about the preservation of the Rule of Law against the forces of benevolent conflict management on the one hand (see yesterday's post on harmony vs. justice here) and the stated enemies of the Rule of Law on the other (see Lawfare: Peace without Justice is Tyranny here)You can't negotiate with in a dictatorship...

How to Make Your Opponent Do What You Want Him to Do: Public Dialogue

Posted on February 19, 2008
"Even if your intention is to bring people together, you have to let them decide whether they want to be together." Ken ClokeYou already know the answer to the question posed in this series of posts but I'll say it anyway. You can't possibly know what you want your opponent to do until you have the opportunity to sit down together to determine what would benefit the two of you the most...

Paternalism, Self-Determination and the Rule of Law

Posted on February 19, 2008
I return from the Mediators Beyond Borders Founding Congress in Colorado with much to think, and write, about.Let me begin today by telling you a story drawn from my community mediation practice. The Parties vs. The LawyersCrystal and Keith /* are the unmarried parents of a seven year old girl, Taniyah...

The Paradox of Power: Trying to Get Your Opponent to Do What You Want: Another Interlude

Posted on February 17, 2008
Minor wisdom from today's break-out session at the Mediators Beyond Borders Founding Congress.You give others power over you by attempting to get them to do what you want them to do. Ask any parent in a supermarket with a two-year old. The only power the 2-year old has is not to do what you want him to do...

Money and Power: How to Make Your Opponent Do What You Want Him to Do: An Interlude

Posted on February 16, 2008
Report on Day Two of the Mediators Beyond Borders Conference later this evening. Now, because Jens Thang from the Negotiation Guru dropped by to comment on Ken Cloke's list of ways we resist change, I'm linking to a recent N.G. article on power...

How to Make Your Opponent Do What You Want Him to Do: Part I

Posted on February 16, 2008
I'm blogging from the Stanley Hotel -- hence the Stanley Steamer -- in the Rocky Mountains -- hence the snow. Stephen King wrote the Shining here, not in my room, but right down the hall. The book was Inspired by the Stanley. Hence the picture of Jack...

A Valentine to Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog for His Birthday

Posted on February 14, 2008
I've never actually met Kevin O'Keefe, the founder of LexBlog, but I owe him a great debt of gratitude for dropping by my old blogger site one day to say he liked a post of mine. The rule of reciprocity and -- more importantly -- of curiosity, made me click on Kevin's Real Lawyers Have Blogs...

Readers! Tell the Cal Blog of Appeal How You Use Legal Blogs

Posted on February 13, 2008
Greg May over at the California Blog of Appeal wants to know -- and may well use your response in one of his upcoming presentations. I think it would be good for Greg (and the rest of us!) to hear particularly from non-blogger lawyers...

One Hundred Articles at Mediate.com for Valentine's Day

Posted on February 13, 2008
O.K., they're not exactly articles. They're posts. It's much much easier to write a post than it is to write an article (N.B. IP ADR BLOGGERS!!!) Maybe it's just me, but I get more miles per gallon out of reading a blog post than an article...

Why You Should Read Making Mediation Your Day Job

Posted on February 12, 2008
Making enough money doing what you love to do? No?Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, Doctor, Lawyer, Native American Chief, here's the book you must buy and read immediately -- Making Mediation Your Day Job: How to Market Your ADR Business Using Mediation Principles You Already Know First, Mediation Earth Mother, Scholar and Entrepreneur, Diane Levin's review:Shakespeare once wrote, "This above all: to thine own self be true...

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor: Marketing You, Inc.

Posted on February 12, 2008
O.K. Big confession. In 25 years of legal practice, I never developed a book a business. Not one page. Not even a post-it note. Which puts me in mind of a Hugh (Gaping Void) McLeod drawing.Other than to urge you to run right out and buy Dr...

Note to Board of Directors: Women Make a Positive Difference

Posted on February 11, 2008
Why diversity? Uh . . . . because that's how life successfully evolved on planet earth?Now a new study prepared by Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business and the Wellesley Centers for Women concludes that corporations benefit from the presence of women on the Board of Directors in Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance...

Trial Mediation and Justice -- the Judge Who Urges Settlement

Posted on February 10, 2008
Thanks to Tulane Law School Professor Alan Childress over at the Legal Profession Blog for alerting us to this item No Bias on Encouraging Settlement about a Rhode Island Supreme Court ruling that a Judge needn't recuse himself for bias if he encourages the parties to settle...

Welcome to the Blawgosphere Civil Negotiations and Mediation

Posted on February 09, 2008
Nancy Hudgins, a California lawyer-mediator, has a new blog -- Civil Negotiation and Mediation. She describes her mission this way:I chose th[e name Civil Negotiation and Mediation] three reasons. I will be discussing negotiation strategies in civil litigation...

Sex Text Hex

Posted on February 08, 2008
Thanks to the ABA Journal for giving me the opportunity to use the word "sex" in a negotiation blog. Alas, our wayward human hearts -- and libidos -- will never stop leading us into endless acts of mischief. See below from Judge Shines Light on Secret Pact to Settle, Hide Text Messages...

Want to Understand Your Jury Pool? Watch Campaign News

Posted on February 07, 2008
Trial attorneys, negotiators, mediators and settlement judges all share the same essential concern -- how to reach and persuade our audience. Trial lawyers have a product to sell -- their client's narrative -- which is always just one version of the "truth...

Writing on a Piece of Rice in a World of Injustice

Posted on February 07, 2008
I often find myself explaining lawyers to their clients and clients to their attorneys. Here are some typical client complaints I hear about their litigator attorneys: he tells me to forget about the most important losses I've suffered she keeps editing my story I don't understand why I can't ...

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