Arbitration & Mediation
mediator blah...blah... 
Brief dispatches from the commercial mediation negotiation table.
Post Frequency: 1.2/day Last Entry: August 12, 2009 at 17:49:00 Recent Entries: 328
Go to mediator blah...blah..., find other Arbitration & Mediation blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Search
Posts
blah... blah... bows out
Posted on August 12, 2009Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed a gradual decline in posting over the last couple of months.Life, dear reader, has got busy and the call of the keyboard is not what it was after a 1016 posts. I have decided to pack it in.To some extent I feel this blog has achieved its aim of bringing the best of the ADR web to those who might not have otherwise sought it out...
What Difference Does a Robe Make? Comparing Mediators with and without Prior Judicial Experience
Posted on August 10, 2009An intriguing article (abstract only) in July's Negotiation Journal (Jul 2009. Vol. 25) by Stephen Goldberg, Margaret Shaw, Jeanne Brett reporting the results of two studies;"... a glance at the rosters of some of the major mediation providers shows that between 40 percent and 60 percent of their mediators are former judges...
Live Blogging from the AMINZ Conference
Posted on August 07, 2009Today in Wellington at Te Papa, our national museum, we are enjoying the most stimulating gathering of mediators at the New Zealand Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute Conference '09. Program here.North Carolina mediator, attorney and author Andy Little is here as guest speaker and workshop presenter...
Improvisation, Negotiation and All That Jazz
Posted on August 01, 2009Some while ago I started a post with;'Yeah well, I'm not sure that I get the whole 'mediators can learn from improv comedy' thing to be honest...'But since then I have read the wonderfully refreshing Improvisational Negotiation by Jeff Krivis and talked to him about the connections between jazz and mediation...
40 Superb Psychology Blogs
Posted on July 30, 2009For those brave mediators who delve into this stuff, check out 40 Superb Psychology Blogs - this post from Psyblog lists forty of the best psychology blogs, chosen to give a broad sweep of the most interesting content being produced online.The list is split into three sections: first are more general psychological blogs, followed by those with an academic slant, followed by condition specific and patient perspective blogs...
Lines are being blurred in modern mediation practice like never before
Posted on July 28, 2009This blog, if you care to take a sampling of past posts, is not that of a white-hat-mediator.That's because I believe life at the coalface of mediation practice is wonderfully confused, frustrating and often dirty, as I attempted to capture by one of my favourite past posts, rehearsing in poetry, but practising in prose...
Yeah, I agree with this...
Posted on July 22, 2009"Professor Roberts argues that this prevents the parties working out a settlement themselves and instead they were dependent upon the mediator. He therefore concluded that the shuttling model was at fault; causing the mediator to get caught up in trying to get an agreement...
Nice collection of articles by AIM Institute faculty just posted
Posted on July 04, 2009"Neutrals Reveal Tips With Their Opening Statements"By Lee Jay BermanMost mediations begin with the mediator's opening statement, much to the consternation of the lawyers (many of whom have heard them many times before) and their parties. Although most lawyers prefer to launch right into their opening statements in a mediation, the mediator's speech can be very helpful...
Deal or No Deal: Improving the Odds of Successful Mediation
Posted on July 02, 2009I have posted before on Don Philbin's masterpiece The One Minute Manager Prepares for Mediation: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Negotiation Preparation published in vol 13 of The Harvard Negotiation Law Review and a serious piece of work.Don is now conducting an hour long ABA teleconference and live audio webcast Deal or No Deal: Improving the Odds of Successful Mediation on Tuesday, July 14 at 1pm Eastern (12:00 PM Central/11:00 AM Mountain/10:00 AM Pacific)...
Expanding the Mediation Pie
Posted on July 01, 2009Just posted today is Expanding the Mediation Pie by Michael Leathes, Director of The International Mediation Institute;"As professionals gingerly tiptoe on the road out of recession, their travel bags need to be packed with new gear. Considered unfashionable in the past, the winds of economic hardship have blown in former style icons...
IMI Registrations Top 1,000 Worldwide
Posted on July 01, 2009July 1; IMI completed its Experience Qualification Path on June 30 2009. Over 1,000 experienced mediators from 35 countries took the opportunity to register on the IMI portal during the EQP period [read more]. [click on the title of this post to read more...
The International Journal of Conflict Management is free all week
Posted on June 30, 2009The International Journal of Conflict Management will be free to access online this week.Simply visit the journal?s homepage and access the content through the table of contents. [click on the title of this post to read more...]
Dinosaurs walk amongst us
Posted on June 24, 2009Today a lawyer told me to write him a letter as he did not believe in email.He should watch this video played at Sony's Executive Conference this year.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Logo poll results
Posted on June 24, 2009Thanks to all those who took the time to vote on my Old vs New Logo Challenge.Here are the results.Jeff Thompson even gave me some options - he's a clever cookie; [click on the title of this post to read more...]
By popular demand
Posted on June 22, 2009I have had a number of emails about my last post where I mentioned a law firm breakfast I had last week to chat about 10 suggestions I had for lawyers heading into a mediation.Here are the first 5;I've just had a call from a lawyer with whom I have a large mediation coming up in late November...
TheTriumph of Soft Skills
Posted on June 20, 2009I sat in for a chat about mediation at a Big Law breakfast this week (juice, muesli, black coffee) and we talked about the evolving face of the new lawyer as well as 10 things lawyers should do in mediation.They are on to it. They know what their clients are looking for...
Mediation Logo
Posted on June 17, 2009Having just posted my 1,000th post for your reading pleasure my dear reader, I hope I have earned the right to ask for something from you in return?If so, would you please give me a simple thumbs up/thumbs down on this new logo I'm thinking of adopting (my old one appears at the bottom of this post);[New Logo] Take the pollFree Poll by Blog Flux[Old Logo][click on the title of this post to read more...
From Zero to Hero
Posted on June 16, 2009I get my best insights into how lawyers see mediators when I occasionally share a ride to the airport with one of them after a mediation (yeah I know, but I always check with the group and then only if we have got a result).Today, unprompted, my colleague shared with me and the cab driver that the most impressive thing about a mediator who's on their game is the ability to go from a standing start to 100kph on the facts that the lawyers have lived with for months - and once there, to apply some rigour before bottom-lining the big points to focus the parties on what's important to their decision some hours away; legal, factual and especially commercial...
Mediation ? an integral part of our litigation culture
Posted on June 10, 20098 June 09 - Speech by Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Master of the Rolls - Mediation, an integral part of our litigation culture Littleton Chambers Annual Mediation Evening, 8th June 2009Hat tip to Current AwarenessP.S. Stone-cum-Ebony ??![click on the title of this post to read more...
Rethinking Negotiation Teaching
Posted on June 09, 2009When I met Chris Honeyman in New York recently he was excited about his new book (well not his alone exactly. His co authors are many).He was excited because not only was his book a winner, it was going to be available at a very reasonable price in hard copy ($26) or chapter by chapter online and free from Hamline University School of Law...
MediAsian has a good roundup of the AMA Conference
Posted on June 08, 2009A great new blog on the ADR block (and one of the first to be seen out of Asia), Prof. Ian Macduff's MediAsian has a very useful summary of the take-homes from last week's 1st Asian Mediation Association Conference in Singapore.Ian, the Director of the new Centre for Dispute Resolution at the Singapore Management University and a friend of this blog, is a very thoughtful academic and experienced practitioner (Sri Lanka, Italy, Geneva and other parts) - grab a feed to MediAsian and sit back for rare insights into Asian mediation and dispute resolution from an Asian insider...
Three Things to Be Against ('Settlement' Not Included) - a Response to Owen Fiss
Posted on June 05, 2009Just out.Three Things to Be Against ('Settlement' Not Included) - a Response to Owen Fiss (May 30, 2009) Fordham Law Review, forthcoming. From Michael Moffitt of ADR Prof Blog and University of Oregon. Anything Michael writes is worth your time."... compare the sloppy reality of settlement in practice with the sloppy reality of litigation in practice...
Images from the 1st Asian Mediation Association Conference today in Singapore
Posted on June 04, 2009[click on the title of this post to read more...]
You heard it here first; New Zealand voted most peaceful nation on earth (and is a great place to be a mediator)
Posted on June 03, 2009The Global Peace Index annually rates countries against a set of criteria including commitment to UN peace keeping, crime levels, political stability and respect for human rights.New Zealand has moved up the rankings from number three in 2008 to beat Denmark and Norway to the top spot...
Ahhhh.... Asia
Posted on June 03, 2009Stand by for tall tales but true from the 1st Asian Mediation Association Conference here in Singapore today and tomorrow.Asia is weathering the global financial storm well with construction cranes still appearing on the skyline and taxi drivers not overly stressed if you decide to walk past them in the 33C heat...
The 1st Asian Mediation Association Conference, Singapore
Posted on June 01, 2009I am on my way to the 1st Asian Mediation Association Conference "Mediation Diversity ? Asia & Beyond? to be held in Singapore at the end of this week.President Martti Ahtisaari, 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and former President of Finland, will be the keynote speaker...
Could you get any better proof?
Posted on May 27, 2009Santa Clara Courthouse dispute headed to mediation... and to make matters worse, one of the Bay Area's finest is charging $25,000![click on the title of this post to read more...]
Which Date Works for your mediation?
Posted on May 24, 2009There are a number of meeting scheduling applications available on the net but this is one I will definitely use.WhichDateWorks.com which was profiled recently over at Steve Mehta's Mediation Matters blog is free and it's perfect for mediators who schedule day long mediations...
Professor Kevin Clements
Posted on May 23, 2009A few years ago a New Zealand Prime Minister observed, in the face of a brain drain to neighbouring Australia, that each Kiwi who left our shores served to raise the IQ of both nations.So what happens when one comes the other way? - in this case it's Professor Kevin Clements who is a returning Kiwi and has been appointed to the new Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at NZ's University of Otago...
Got something to say? Then get your paper in for LEADR's 'k?? gr?s 2009
Posted on May 20, 2009Go on, you know you want to. Click on the image.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Breaking News: Mediate.com announces its new Cerification Program
Posted on May 20, 2009After more than a year in development, Mediate.com is offering a Mediator Certification Program for well trained and highly experienced mediators.Read James Melamed's post here. [click on the title of this post to read more...]
The Lord Chief Justice arms himself with a hammer for his first mediation
Posted on May 19, 2009The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales speaks out at the Civil Mediation Council Conference last week;"My opponent and I turned up at the County Court armed with an abundance of authorities because we had to address limitation periods, laches, injunctive relief, indeed just about every facet of civil justice...
ABA ethics opinion sets out limits on mediator disclosure
Posted on May 15, 2009Well yes, we already knew the rule that we couldn't cross-pollinate between caucus and joint rooms (except for noisy disclosure) but hey, thanks for the tip about how to get around it; ask some questionsHat tip CPR[click on the title of this post to read more...
No wonder I am bouncing off the walls
Posted on May 15, 2009Once the nicities are done, I'm usually out of my mediator chair.Thank goodness I now know why as researchers report that Body Movements Can Influence Problem Solving [click on the title of this post to read more...]
The Use of Mediation in Construction Disputes
Posted on May 15, 2009If you are a construction mediator, you will want to read this 40 page 2009 report setting out the results of a research project conducted by The Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution, King?s College London and The Technology and Construction Court...
Find the right thread to pull
Posted on May 14, 2009Overheard recently in a discussion between litigators discussing the wisdom of hiring an evaluative mediator."It's just too risky and we don't want a mediator telling us anything, we can get a Judge to do that"When one of the huddle said "hang on a minute - I'm not talking about a thumbs up/thumbs down kinda guy, I want someone who finds the right thread to pull so as to facilitate an organised retreat, that's what I mean by evaluative...
UK Civil Litigation Review
Posted on May 13, 2009UK's Lord Justice Jackson published his Preliminary Civil Litigation Cost Review last Friday.I don't know the politics of this well enough to speculate whether this might be another Lord Woolf moment but given that any rethink of how litigation might work better normally impacts in some way on our world of mediating litigated cases, this may be worth a read (at 1000 pages!)...
Strategies for Dealing with Tough Topics & Interpersonal Conflicts
Posted on May 08, 2009Yes! I want a FREE downloadable report The New Conflict Management: Strategies for Dealing with Tough Topics & Interpersonal Conflicts along with free negotiation posts by email from Harvard's Program on Negotiation. [click on the title of this post to read more...
Okay wise guy, what would you do...
Posted on May 06, 2009... if the parties had asked you to take the original of their hard won signed settlement agreement with you when you finished up late last night so you could scan it and email it around to them the next day and... your state-of-the-art scanner/printer swallowed it and refused to give it up?I mean really shredded it deep within its bowels...
Susan Hammer of Portland has a lot to say
Posted on May 05, 2009Leading Pacific North-West mediator, Susan Hammer of Portland, Oregon was interviewed by Doug Noll on his internet radio show recently while in NYC.Listen to Susan talk about Mars vs Venus, that age-old conflict between men and women - is there really a difference in the way that men and women handle conflict and negotiation? Does gender really make a difference in the way that the sexes fight, negotiate, and make up?Then take a look at Susan's latest research based article about advising on the value of the case; Let's Not Make a Deal"In just 15 percent of all cases, both sides better their position at trial ? that is, the plaintiff is awarded more than the defendant offered and the defendant paid less than the plaintiff demanded...
The rise and rise of AIM
Posted on May 04, 2009I've been watching the newly founded American Institute of Mediation since it launched a couple of months ago with interest.This blog has no particular connection with AIM but I do admire its founder Lee Jay Berman, who speaks with real commercial common sense and passion on both the business and practise aspects of mediation (see his great interview with Vicki Pyncon just posted yesterday)...
Another first by Mike McIlwrath
Posted on May 03, 2009You must take a listen to Mike McIlwrath's latest podcast where he opens up about one of his employer?s mediations.He gathers the mediator, well-known U.K. neutral Tony Allen, and the employee, Gavin Slessor, of Scotland, who lost his right arm and leg in a workplace accident...
The Edges of Orthodoxy in Mediation - John Wade's latest
Posted on May 01, 2009The Edges of Orthodoxy in Mediation'The writer finds less-than-orthodox [mediator] practices fascinating, while affirming that titillating tales of the fascinating fringe provide no legal relief from the hard work of sustaining competency in the orthodox foundations...
Addicted to mediator blah... blah...?
Posted on April 30, 2009Then this little app will help you reclaim your life!It will force you to stop, think - then and only then - proceed to blah... blah's latest posts.Hat Tip to DailyBlogTips [click on the title of this post to read more...]
Spotlight on Diane Levin over at Mediate.com
Posted on April 29, 2009See what makes mediation's foremost ADR journalist tick over at Mediate.com.Diane's pick for the next ten years?"Here?s what I predict.(You can come back in 10 years and let me know how I did.)Advances in neuroscience and psychology regarding decision making and judgment will gain increasing importance for practitioners of ADR, yielding practical applications and techniques for producing better decisions...
My last word on the ABA conference
Posted on April 28, 2009Having put some distance between me and the ABA spring get-together the other week in New York, I am left with a slight hangover.Not because of nights out on Broadway at God of Carnage or Billy Elliot, or that $25 whiskey sour on top of the Rockefeller Centre or even slugging pints of Brooklyn Brown downtown with Jeff Thompson...
Unforseen business risks out of a clear blue sky
Posted on April 27, 2009Having returned to New Zealand in the weekend, I was just back in harness today when my phone went.An authoritative voice on the other end announced that I had been on the same plane from L.A. as a group of kids who had been on a school trip to Mexico and were now exhibiting symptoms of swine flu...
Marquette blows its own trumpet
Posted on April 26, 2009With some justification I might add, coming in 6th in the latest D/R rankings.In a piece entitled Dispute Resolution Surges Forward at Marquette, Andrea Schneider gives a good rundown of the D/R program at Marquette.[click on the title of this post to read more...
Bernie Mayer's new book: Staying with Conflict - A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes
Posted on April 24, 2009I went to a session at last week's conference in New York where Bernie Mayer promoted his new book; Staying with Conflict: A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes.Contents1. A New Direction for the Conflict Field2. Conflict and Engagement3. Escaping the Avoidance Trap4...
Video Interview with Jim Melamed
Posted on April 24, 2009Settle It Now's Vickie Pynchon was busy at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section conference in New York last week with her new video camera.Watch her interview with Mediate.com's Jim Melamed hereAnd here for her chat with Jordan Wallerstein, the editor in waiting of the Cardozo Law School Dispute Resolution JournalThese are great, more please Vickie![click on the title of this post to read more...
Playing Legos with Robert Creo
Posted on April 23, 2009'Not long ago, I was visiting my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, during the traditional Friday afternoon free-beer happy hour. I noticed a group of students unloading a mass quantity of Legos from boxes. The Legos were set around a clear area in the middle of the room...
2009 D/R Rankings Leaked
Posted on April 23, 20092009 US News Law School Rankings ? Dispute Resolution 1. Pepperdine2. Missouri3. Harvard4. Hamline5. Ohio State6. Marquette7. Oregon and Yeshiva University (Cardoza) - tie9. UNLV10. FordhamThanks to ADR Prof Blog[click on the title of this post to read more...
Cool Britannia - public sector ADR up by a quarter
Posted on April 20, 2009The UK Government's Annual Pledge Report 2007/08 is just out.The Pledge Report contains a review of ADR use in government over the past 12 months.Bottom line is the use of ADR by government in Britain has risen by 25.25% compared to 06/07.The money quote;'During the reporting period 2007/08, ADR has been used in 374 cases with 271 leading to settlement, saving costs estimated at £26...
The Singapore Management University's new Centre for Dispute Resolution
Posted on April 17, 2009I am delighted to break the news through this blog that my New Zealand colleague, Prof Ian Macduff (recently of Victoria University and now The Singapore Management University) is heading up SMU's new Centre for Dispute Resolution within its School of Law...
New York
Posted on April 17, 2009Want the Big Apple experience?Then you should be here in my hotel room - well not too many of you as you don't get much for $229 plus taxes and tips in NYC - but, from here I can see the David Letterman Late Show line snaking out down Broadway and around into 53rd St and I sure can hear those guys from FDNY/NYPD down on the street...
Mediation goes to New York
Posted on April 12, 2009This coming week (15 - 18 April) both the International Academy of Mediators and the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section are holding spring conferences in New York so expect your favourite bloggers to getting it to you live.This blog is taking the 18 hour magic carpet ride to be in the Big Apple and I know the folks from Settle It Now will be taking the red eye across from L...
Noisy Disclosure - do you do it?
Posted on April 09, 2009Robin Horton is a J.D. student at Harvard Law School conducting a short survey of practicing mediators for research on what has been called 'the noisy disclosure mediation technique'.In Economic Rationales for Mediation (1994) Jennifer Brown of Quinnipiac University School of Law and Ian Ayres, then of Yale Law School, suggested that, through caucusing, mediators can help parties avoid bargaining failures by assisting parties in determining whether a zone of possible agreement exists...
Prof Laurence Boulle appointed to lead the Mandela Institute
Posted on April 08, 2009Prof Laurence Boulle, a great friend of all of us here at blah... blah..., is taking leave of absence from Bond University for two years from July.Laurence has been appointed Director of the Mandela Institute for Global Economic Law and Issy Wolfson Professor of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg...
If you belong to any of these organisations get your skates on
Posted on April 07, 2009If you belong to one of these organisations you have 84 days to qualify for IMI certification and why wouldn't you?Experienced commercial mediators are able to gain IMI Certification via the Experience Qualification Path, and include your Mediator Profile on the IMI Web Portal, without undertaking a test, if you belong to any one of these; ADR Institute of Canada (ADRIC Chartered Mediator) www...
A snapshot of Core's mediations
Posted on April 06, 2009For our Scottish cousins, this Scots Law Times piece from John Sturrock QC, Chief Executive of Core Solutions Group, taking a snapshot of growth of mediation over the last two years in Scotland.Some stats from 130 mediations handled by Core Mediation 07/09;> 72 law firms involved - many firms multiple users, 12 firms 10+ meds/several 20+)> 200+ indivual solicitors involved - four solicitors 47+ meds> 30 counsel/barristers have been in 20 meds> 23 meds had no lawyers (usually workplace)> 250 parties - 70/30 split - organisations/individuals> 30 of the 130 were employment meds > 40 meds involved public bodies or not for profits> 20% involved insurers > 80 meds featured commercial disputes > Of those 80 commercial disputes - 40+ were contractual and 40+ were property, construction, conveyancing related> 40% were pre-litigation mediations> 130 meds took 181 days - 75% complete within one day> 10+ meds were multi party (3+ parties)> Res Rate around 75/80%Thanks for sharing John![click on the title of this post to read more...
Mediation?s Bum Rap
Posted on April 05, 2009Lovells' partner Neal Moglin makes the case for mediation in the heady world of reinsurance at the 16th Annual Insurance Insolvency & Reinsurance Roundtable to be held April 22 in Scottsdale, Arizona[click on the title of this post to read more.....
Come on down, Mr. Lee Jay Berman!
Posted on April 03, 2009Lee Jay Berman has a movie actor profile picture and, coming from L.A, no doubt mediates most of Hollywood's troubles away as well.He is one of the most active mediators out there and recently founded the American Institute of Mediation.Take a look at this email from Lee Jay that came across my screen this week as part of a mediators' list serve discussion on neutrality...
The Great UK Mediation Training Con
Posted on April 03, 2009Today's kick-ass piece from Matthew Rushton is worth a read - here's the money quote;'Mediation doesn't need any more well-intentioned dupes, and training mediators has failed to grow the market. Training organisations might delude themselves into believing they're churning out the next generation of stellar mediators...
ADR clauses force parties to the table
Posted on April 02, 2009They came to mediation today because they had to - there was a mediation clause in their contract. They both felt press-ganged into being at the table, but what to do? They can't do litigation until they've done mediation and it did seem like a good idea when the lawyers drafted it two years ago...
Mediate.com is giving it away all of April!!
Posted on April 02, 2009Mediate.com has opened its wonderful treasure trove (aka Mediate.com Video Center) to everyone for April.The easiest jump off point is here. [click on the title of this post to read more...]
2 new articles over at CPR
Posted on April 02, 20091. Why Should Businesses Hire Settlement Counsel? by Kathy Bryan, President and CEO of CPR.2. The Movement Toward Early Case Handling in Courts and Private Dispute Resolution by John Lande from the University of Missouri School of Law.'Dispute system design theory, practice, and research should incorporate the ?earliness? of conflict management as an explicit and important element...
Selling ice to eskimos
Posted on April 02, 2009A real smart short practice article from niche PI mediator, Philip Hesketh over at The Mediator Magazine;Box Clever: Marketing Mediation to Personal Injury Lawyers - Personal Injury lawyers do not have a dispute resolution problem. They have been resolving disputes for years...
An interview with Kofi Annan
Posted on April 01, 2009On a day when a Kiwi got the #3 spot at the UN and found herself in charge of one of the world's largest conflict management programmes as head of the UNDP it's appropriate to highlight an interview with Kofi Annan on his mediation of Kenya's post election crisis that captures best practices in mediation and reflects on the experiences of senior mediators...
NADRAC releases milestone issues paper
Posted on March 26, 2009Australia's National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council today released its long awaited 73 page Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Civil Justice System Issues Paper.This paper is the first step in shaping how the courts and mediation will interact in Australasia for years to come...
Can mediation evolve into a global profession?
Posted on March 25, 2009An important article hot off the press from Michael McIlwrath, Senior Counsel-Litigation, GE Oil & Gas, Florence, Italy and Chairman of the Board of the International Mediation Institute.In many legal environments, mediation has found itself in a bit of a rut, experiencing only very marginal growth...
Timing is everything
Posted on March 25, 2009Having just completed a factually rich mediation where we all needed to get our heads around a chronology of events that stretched over some days and where the minute by minute order of things was important to understanding the value of the case, it seemed to me we needed to do more than a text document with events listed by date...
New Article from John Lande
Posted on March 22, 2009Just up: Lande's 50 page The Movement Toward Early Case Handling in Courts and Private Dispute ResolutionContents;Early Case Handling in Courts>Early Case Management>Differentiated Case Management Systems>Early Neutral Evaluation>Early Mediation Early Case Handling in Private Dispute Resolution >ADR Pledges and Contract Clauses >Early Case Assessment and ADR Screening Protocols>Settlement Counsel >Collaborative Practice>Cooperative Practice[click on the title of this post to read more...
Now is the time to be talking to in-house counsel
Posted on March 22, 2009There have been many guessing what this economy might do to/for mediation, including this blog.As the year unfolds, I think it is becoming clear. Commercial mediation is up.If you have time, go visit members of your local in-house counsel community. That's where the action is in this economy...
Gender dependent skill tip...
Posted on March 17, 2009Having got a break-through in the men's urinal today, always follow the decision maker into the loo with a killer question; you'll get a killer answer.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
I'm 51, I don't understand Facebook and how it can be used for my business
Posted on March 10, 2009... but this video may help: How to Use Facebook for BusinessAnd if you are a FB member, here's blahblah's FB business page.Now what?[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Guidelines for Working with Interpreters in Mediations
Posted on February 24, 2009A good piece from Prof Hal Abramson at Touro Law Center for the rare times you might need Guidelines for Working with Interpreters in Mediations (1999, updated 2008)[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Seeking quality, not volume
Posted on February 23, 2009On my way home last Friday I ran into an old school mate in the airport lounge.After reverting to some school boy banter [me; what's a farmer like you doing in a lounge full of suits like this? him; do you still do that thing where you sit around a lot?] we caught up on family and work...
New from Prof John Lande
Posted on February 21, 2009John Lande, Director of the LLM Program in Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri School of Law, has just published Learning From ?Cooperative? Negotiators in Wisconsin, Dispute Resolution Magazine (Winter 2009), which summarizes the results of his empirical study of Wisconsin Cooperative lawyers...
Fatigue
Posted on February 19, 2009A nice reminder for seasoned mediators over at First Mediation's blog today - on a topic we don't talk about much (except perhaps at Timed Out and Mediator Burn Out).[click on the title of this post to read more...]
A Perfect Storm is Gathering
Posted on February 18, 2009"A Perfect Storm is gathering, comprising the effects of severe economic downturn, the alacrity with which corporate law departments seek greater transparency and outcome certainty, and new tools in the field of information and communication technology...
New book from Bernie Mayer
Posted on February 18, 2009Take a peek inside Bernie Mayer's brand new book with this free chapter."Staying with Conflict offers a new paradigm for dealing with long-term disputes: When dealing with enduring conflict, move past the idea of how quickly you can resolve the conflict and instead focus on how you can help people prepare to engage with an issue over time...
The role of the law in settlement
Posted on February 16, 2009Today's mediation was novel.Today a lawyer's analysis of the law made a difference. It doesn't usually.It's often not the done thing to labor the law in mediation, because it's all about interests, isn't it? Not positions and certainly not legal ones...
Maintaining ADR Integrity
Posted on February 14, 2009Just up at SSRN last Thursday - Maintaining ADR Integrity - by Carrie Menkel-Meadow of Georgetown University Law Center and self professed "member of the ADR founding generation".Modern ADR was born 30 years ago in response to the failings and abuses of the then prevailing dispute resolution mechanisms, especially litigation...
Confidentially Breached in Mediation
Posted on February 13, 2009We used to trumpet litigation wins in firm advertising, now we do the same with mediation??The mediation; Facebook Reportedly Near Accord Over OriginA federal judge in California ordered the parties into mediation last year. The person briefed on the settlement negotiations, who declined to be identified because the deal was not yet completed, said motions to dismiss the case against Facebook were expected ?within weeks?...
Benjamin's on fire
Posted on February 10, 2009I make it a practise to alert you to all new Robert Benjamin articles.I mean, I sometimes don't get the whole dirty guerrilla war theme that runs through many of Robert's articles but I always find them thought provoking.Here's another one just up today; The Joy Of Impasse: The Neuroscience Of ?Insight? And Creative Problem Solving...
A cool new app for the travelling mediator
Posted on February 10, 2009If you like to use your laptop on planes and buses this free little application is for you.Wysigot Light allows you to capture whole websites (or just part) for viewing when you are away from the Internet, like when you are in the air, on a train or mediation training without a connection...
ADR Bloggers to meet at the Spring ABA Conference in NYC
Posted on February 09, 2009Calling all ADR Bloggers: Come out, come out from behind your blog banners and meet face-to-face at the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution's Spring Conference April 15 - 18, Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, New York.There is a rumour that Diane Levin will be there...
Enjoy Mediation with Jeff Thompson
Posted on February 04, 2009Jeff Thompson is a mediator with New York's Finest and he has found his calling practising his craft right there on the mean streets of the Big Apple and I was lucky enough to catch up with him when I was at Bond University late in 08.He also blogs about mediation so click on the Coke sign to get to his great new and informative addition to our ADR blogosphere...
Judges as mediators
Posted on February 03, 2009I know nothing about the New Minnesota Judicial Code except that it has been recently changed to allow part-time judges to serve as private mediators, effective July 1, 2009. So that means a judge can privately mediate one week and publicly sit on the bench the next...
Recent Robert Benjamin articles
Posted on January 30, 2009From Robert Benjamin's Newsletter, which he describes as including a few street smart practical suggestions and miscellaneous musings from the shadow side of negotiation practice;Cloaked Negotiation: Necessary Back-Channel, Under the Table and Surreptitious Strategies and Techniques to Make Deals Work, Jan 2009 Cloaked and surreptitious negotiation strategies are commonly used but seldom openly discussed by conflict management practitioners...
Mediators have no interest in justice and fairness; Charlie Irvine bites back!
Posted on January 30, 2009Well, I'm not sure of the politics behind this exchange.But read Charlie Irvine's response to senior academic and Honorary Queen?s Counsel Dame Hazel Genn's lecture in December 2008 ADR and Civil Justice: What?s justice got to do with it? Hazel (can I call you Hazel?) suggests that mediation ?is not about just settlement? but rather ?it is just about settlement' and helpfully suggest that ?perhaps everything can be mediated and the courts can all become pubs and restaurants'...
Eleven Australian Research Papers up on the web
Posted on January 29, 2009The Australian National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council's Compendium of Research Papers (full text) presented at the 2007 National ADR Research Forum in Melbourne just up on the web;1. THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN TRANSITION PROJECT2. TRANSFORMING MEDIATION IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION3...
Family mediators will want to get hold of the latest Family Court Review
Posted on January 26, 2009... because the January Family Court Review (Vol. 47, Iss. 1) includes all these mediation articles;REFLECTIONS ON THE STATE OF CONSENSUS-BASED DECISION MAKING IN CHILD WELFARE Bernie Mayer. AbstractA GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION: LESSONS FROM 25 YEARS OF PRACTICE Marilou Giovannucci, Karen Largent...
Sneak Preview of Ken Cloke's new book
Posted on January 25, 2009Excerpt from Ken Cloke's upcoming book: Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice, and Terrorism by Janis Publications"While listening to news about the latest disasters from wars to terrorist attacks around the world, I sometimes fantasize about what would happen if, instead of dropping bombs on civilian populations, mediators by the tens of thousands were parachuted into war zones...
Who the hell is Brother Mat and where can we report him?
Posted on January 23, 2009In response to a call for outlandish mediation techniques by the good folks over at ADR Prof Blog this week, they got this;Posted by Brother Mat // Jan 21, 2009 at 5:28 pmReality testing is an essential tool in mediation. Conceptually, a mediator invokes a sort-of reducio ad absurdum* argument with the unrealistic party...
Mediation Advocacy
Posted on January 22, 2009Want something to go out to client lawyers with in the hope of getting some of their mediation work in 2009?Try this easy to read 8 page think-piece from In Place of Strife mediator Charles Middleton-Smith: The Art of Advocacy in Mediation: exploring the role of legal advisers in mediation...
New ABA National Clearinghouse for Mediator Ethics Opinions
Posted on January 22, 2009Whether you are looking for mediation ethics opinions in a specific jurisdiction or analysis of an ethical standard, ABA's new online resource provides advisory opinions from 43 states to help mediators make smart choices in their practice.The database contains a short summary of each opinion with a hyperlink to the original opinion or document issued by the state or national body...
When will you start making money in 2009?
Posted on January 21, 2009As I recall it, my old law firm split used to be 1/3 for overhead like rent etc, 1/3 for salary and then, and only then, 1/3 for profit.That is; P=R-E (profit equals revenue less expenses)Going into a new year, this meant partners only started making money around June or later! I suspect any firm still on these metrics is struggling...
CPR Annual Awards
Posted on January 20, 2009This blog is proud to be mentioned in dispatches at The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute) Annual Awards Dinner in New York this week.The award is all the sweeter given posts here over the years have not always been flattering of some of the larger players who lead our industry...
Teaching On-Line Negotiation to Law Students
Posted on January 20, 2009Recently up at SSRN - for the teachers amongst us - Deal or No Deal: Teaching On-Line Negotiation to Law Students by Australian academics, Sam Hardy and David Spencer."This article discusses and evaluates a teaching initiative conducted by the authors and their students in 2006...
This is not everyday stuff. Does all this signal a new culture of collaborative excellence?
Posted on January 19, 2009A reflective piece by Mediate.com's Jim Melamed as the US turns a page tomorrow - Obama, Miracle on the Hudson and a Society of Collaborative Excellence"What are the odds of Barack Obama becoming President? And what are the odds of 155 passengers surviving a plane crash into the Hudson River?As this pilot landed the plane without a life lost...
Mediation: Principles, Process, Practice to be launched next week
Posted on January 15, 2009Breaking News; In a rare show of trans-Tasman collaboration, Prof Laurence Boulle of Bond University in Queensland, Australia has combined with Wellington barrister and founding president of the Arbitrators & Mediators Institute of New Zealand, Phillip Green together with Virginia Goldblatt, director of the Dispute Resolution Centre at NZ's Massey University, to write the NZ edition of Mediation: Principles, Process, Practice...
Take the poll - are you intending to certify with IMI in 2009?
Posted on January 14, 2009Take the pollFree Poll by Blog FluxRead the latest on IMI Certification hereCan you grandparent in via IMI's Experience Qualification Path ? Find out here IMI's website here[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Video resources for family mediators
Posted on January 13, 2009A nice set of quality videos on all aspects of family mediation from mediator John Speigel of Rockville, MD (John uses instructional video site monkeysee.com to present these client resources and does a great job with it)Videos in the series:What is divorce mediation?What is the goal of divorce mediation?Is mediation only for people who can get along?What are the benefits of divorce mediation?How can I begin the mediation process?What happens if we cannot agree during mediation?[click on the title of this post to read more...
Should you keep your mediator notes?
Posted on January 12, 2009I don't and I even say that in my engagement information.But Australian attorney mediator, Michael Creelman, has had concerns about this and sees it as a professional indemnity issue in his piece Mediators? notes of the mediation - a mediator's protective device"A practice appears to have been built up, at least from anecdotal evidence, of mediators destroying their notes following mediation...
Bad economy a boon for pre-suit mediation?
Posted on January 12, 2009Last year I asked whether more litigation = more mediation? (and at the risk of being an I told you so, pointed out in January 2008 that the light you could see at the end of that annual tunnel was a train, stupid)Here's one take for January 2009; Bad economy a boon for pre-suit mediation?"With the economy crimping corporate legal spending, Allen Smith, a partner with the law firm SettlePou in Dallas, has noticed that clients are more receptive to early mediations of commercial disputes"[click on the title of this post to read more...
How to salvage a summer holiday
Posted on January 09, 2009Given my last post you are forgiven for expecting this entry to come from a remote Andean valley or beamed out from atop Machu Picchu which, btw, is rumoured to have gone wireless.But no, this post comes to you from my kitchen table in New Zealand, having aborted the summer expedition to South America and Easter Island after 5 days of wait and see as sickness ravaged our family ranks...
Adiós
Posted on December 29, 2008Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year all.Consistent with previous years, this blog will go quiet over January but as with past summer family expeditions, I hope to report to you, my dear reader, on matters mediation from exotic points along our route...
Your New Year's Resolution - IMI Certification
Posted on December 29, 2008IMI is open for business and the Experience Qualification Path to Certification is available only for the first half of 2009! Until June 30th experienced commercial mediators may certify via EQP without undertaking any test. You can grandparent in by belonging to any of these organisations: 1...
A stocking filler from LEADR
Posted on December 12, 2008Leadr's Christmas edition of Update came out yesterday and it's full of goodies for the festive season - like a podcast interview with the grandfather of mediation DownUnder, an article from this Kiwi on the 5 things I have learnt this year and a great piece on my favourite hobby horse, whether judges should mediate or not...
so can i?
Posted on December 11, 2008My present mediator's lifestyle certainly beats the old biglaw days of long hours and young mouths to feed both at home and at the office - but it still takes its toll, travel mainly.When I arrived back in Wellington this morning from a 4 day road trip mediating back to back in different centres around New Zealand - and having finally finished up around 11...
A Cheap Shot
Posted on December 02, 2008A brave post over at the transformative focused Dialogic Mediation Services Blog giving readers ten reasons to hire the author;10. After I open the session by discussing how I mediate, you decide whether my approach can be of use.9. You decide what to talk about...
What part of "tune into this blog to get the latest good stuff on the web" do you not understand?
Posted on December 01, 2008Aggressive post title to be sure, to be sure - it's just that I get asked all the time - why do I blog? - when it's obvious; there is just so much darn good mediation material on the web needing someone to disseminate it to those who would not otherwise find it...
Don't forget to get your entry in!
Posted on November 30, 2008Quick! Don't be shy.Get your entry into the 2008 ADR post of the year competition. Entries are closing.For details of the competition read my recent post Calling All ADR Bloggers - is one of your posts the very best written in 2008? and then email me or the Mediation Channel the link to your very best post written this year before we open up the voting...
Are successful female mediators unlikeable businesswoman?
Posted on November 26, 2008I am grateful to the many successful female mediators who read this blog and who I am lucky to count as friends and colleagues.I wonder, if you are at the top of your game, do you ever feel your success at the mediation table has counted against you with mediation parties in what is often said to be a male dominated field?Take a look at this article on juror reactions to successful female trial lawyers saying that research consistently finds that both males and females characterise woman who have been successful in male dominated fields as cold, unlikeable businesswoman...
More Harvard Treasures
Posted on November 25, 2008Well, I've said before that they put something in the water at Harvard a year or so ago and ever since the ivy clad walls have been tumbling down to reveal online treasures inside the hallowed grounds (a collection here).So it is that Harvard Negotiation Law Review has at last got itself an online presence and it's fresh out of the box here...
Andy Little
Posted on November 24, 2008Last Friday I was lucky enough to be involved in a conference call with Andy Little, author of Making Money Talk. Love that mild Southern accent.For any attorney/mediators who have trouble seeing what the interest based school of thought has to do with mediations over litigated pots of money, this book is for you...
What?s driving interest in mediation globally?
Posted on November 24, 2008James South, Director of Training at CEDR, gives us an erudite explanation of why CEDR's training and consultancy work has gone from being 90% UK based 3 years ago to 50% UK and 50% international in 2008. What's more 15% of CEDR's cases now involve international parties...
Calling All ADR Bloggers - is one of your posts the very best written in 2008?
Posted on November 20, 2008ADR blogs Mediation Channel and mediator blah... blah... are combining in a quest to find the 3 best mediation related posts written in 2008.Together we are asking all ADR bloggers to send us your very favourite mediation/negotiation related post that you have written this year for inclusion in the competition...
Does the President actually read this stuff?
Posted on November 19, 2008Well, he might I suppose - he must be at a loose end through to noon, January 20th.In that case, Bill Warters over at CAMPUS-ADRTECH has his bedtime reading posting news of a 181 page Report for the President on the Use and Results of ADR in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government in 2007...
A gratuitous insult
Posted on November 19, 2008Well! If Kevin Forrester of the mediation friendly and well worth following psmkr blog is representative when he comments on yesterday's post Does the President actually read this stuff?, I have just lost 45.90% of my readers;"Thank you, Mr. Sharp, for your contribution...
Multi Party Mediation - Part 2
Posted on November 17, 2008The remainder of Michael Landrum's tips for multi party mediations (read tips 1 to 5 here).6. Try to arrive at an initial consensus among all defendants as a group on what defendants ?think plaintiffs should take? (no matter that it?s always low-ball ? see below)...
Winners of 2008 CEDR Awards for Excellence in ADR announced - podcasting Michael McIlwrath is a winner!
Posted on November 14, 2008Chosen from all the awards finalists, Michael McIlwrath of General Electric Oil and Gas won the Innovations award, for his wonderful weekly International Dispute Negotiation pod casts available on CPR's website.Read about all 2008 CEDR category winners and finalists here[click on the title of this post to read more...
Multi Party Mediation - Part 1
Posted on November 14, 2008Sometimes, just sometimes, busy commercial mediators take the time to spread a little wisdom around the rest of us and one of the great things about belonging to the International Academy of Mediators is that you usually get to hear about it first.So it was this week when Eleanor Barr, an accomplished mediator out of Los Angeles, asked for advice on how to structure a 13 party mediation...
Good faith negotiation
Posted on November 13, 2008I often hear "good faith", or more accurately the lack of any when the deal was struck but now fallen apart, bandied around the mediation room - it's an easy charge to make but if you've ever wondered what good faith actually is try this;'The issue of good faith can apply to both pre-contractual negotiations and negotiations undertaken in the performance of the contract...
Dispute resolution and cognitive and behavioral psychology
Posted on November 12, 2008An interesting literature review over at JAMS on the connections between the world of dispute resolution and the worlds of cognitive and behavioral psychology.The article previews the new YES! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini and if you are particularly interested in this confluence of disciplines mention is also made of Richard Restak?s Mozart?s Brain and the Fighter Pilot, Daniel Gilbert?s Stumbling on Happiness, Drew Westen?s The Political Brain, and David Linden?s The Accidental Mind...
Scottish news
Posted on November 08, 2008David Bleiman, a full time trade union official, has written a discussion paper for trade union members entitled ?Should I try mediation??This is a first and specifically written from a trade union standpoint looking at a range of issues which any employee could be encouraged to consider in order to be able to participate in mediation on the basis of informed consent and with appropriate safeguards...
Some interesting hard statistics
Posted on November 08, 2008Over at Practical Dispute Resolution there is a very interesting research exercise going on.Early this month the blog authors announced that they had begun;"... to study alternative dispute resolution by looking at mediation sessions the way a scientist would look at experimental trials...
UK News
Posted on November 08, 2008Two breaking stories from the mother country;First, coming to us via Human Law Mediation an excellent article on the state of mediation in the UK by the chair of the Civil Justice Council?s ADR Committee, Tim Wallis.Second, via The Mediator Magazine, a rather brutal assessment of UK mediator rankings divided into 4 bands, that even to this distant eye does not look quite right...
How Appealing in mediation today
Posted on November 03, 2008This note appeared over at Howard Bashman's How Appealing today. Programming note: I'll be attending a private (not court-sponsored) mediation this morning in Philadelphia of a case in which my clients have already won on appeal. Additional posts will appear here later today...
Real lawyers don't eat quiche
Posted on October 31, 2008So in the inevitable corridor time, well into the afternoon of a mediation this week, one of the lawyers who I had last seen when I was at my law firm in the 1990's says to me; "So Geoff, when did you give up real law?"At this point, two answers are possible; one for a valued and hopefully future consumer of mediation services; 'ha! I haven't had to open a law book since 1998'...
Bonding @ Bond
Posted on October 28, 2008I am looking forward to working on my tan next week at the Dispute Resolution Centre at Bond University on the Australia's Gold Coast as part of Bond's Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Program.Bond, which is Australia's first private university, has very generously sponsored my visit and, as well as 'taking part in the intellectual life of the Law Faculty', I plan to spend time with DRC directors Professor John Wade and Professor Laurence Boulle, two of Australia's leading ADR academics...
Co-op
Posted on October 26, 2008This new free program called Co-Op looks interesting if you work within a loose panel of mediators and need to stay in touch with what each other is doing.It won't be for everyone but it looks great if you have the need. For instance, it might suit groups of community mediators or other voluntary panels who want to keep track of who's doing what and the time it's taking...
Mediators : give this to your will drafting clients for future income stream
Posted on October 25, 2008Leaving More than Money: Mediation Clauses in Estate Planning Documents by Profs Lela Love and Stewart Sterk of Yeshiva University - Cardozo School of Law"For testators who are primarily motivated by the desire to exercise ?dead hand? control over the distribution of their estate, mediation clauses are not advisable...
WTH DY mean?
Posted on October 23, 2008Okay, I still think of myself as young.Like, I jog.I LOVE the latest Duffy album and Susan is forever telling me to grow up. And she would know if I had some left to do, wouldn't she?So why? Why did I not have a clue what this young lawyer meant when she passed me this note in mediation yesterday that said;Geoff, we nd a break sn...
Screen-2-screen mediation for face-2-face mediators
Posted on October 21, 2008In light of Vickie Pynchon's recent posts Negotiating by Email? Think Again! and More Dangers in Negotiating by Email, this online course on how to mediate by email looks interesting.As a SquareTrade mediator from Hawaii, Giuseppe Leone has mediated over 600 cases by email across USA, Europe, Asia...
Conversational Blindness
Posted on October 21, 2008I often see folks in mediation dodging a question they would rather not answer. I'm frequently surprised that they are not picked up on it and get away with shepherding the conversation to safer ground.A recent Harvard study, Conversational Blindness: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way by Todd Rogers and Michael Norton found;>Conversational blindness occurs in part because real-world conversations occur as a continuous ebb and flow, leaving little time for people to reflect on how every statement links to each previous statement...
JAMS Forms Financial Markets Group
Posted on October 18, 2008If you read your way past the JAMS' corporate gobbly-gook of 'highly respected neutrals, most distinguished mediators, our highly esteemed panel, best equipped' and so on, then this news of a specially formed JAMS group of mediators to respond to the financial crisis is quite interesting...
Dirty Work, Clean Hands
Posted on October 15, 2008If you are the sort of mediator who only works separate rooms (disclosure; my views on that here at The legal community has learned to accept low-functioning mediation) consider this;"Mobsters have hit men, CEOs have vice presidents, lawyers, and accountants...
Haven't read Blawg Review #181? Dust off your PI policy now!
Posted on October 13, 2008Blawg Review #181 is a triumph and it's professional negligence not to read it.Hosted by the much loved matriarch of the ADR blogosphere, Diane Levin over at the Mediation Channel, Blawg Review #181 celebrates International Conflict Resolution Day.What can I say? Blawg Review #181 is like real fruit ice cream, so many links to discover the deeper you dig, complete with a Monty Python sketch and an illusion that, depending on which way you see the dancer spinning, tells you more about yourself than you want to know...
Vanishing trials: Out-of-court settlements on the rise
Posted on October 13, 2008Well, if it's true, why don't more lawyers bother to understand the art and science of settlement?Is it so hard?Hey! The intersection where legal principles and the behavioural sciences meet has got to be more interesting than, oh I don't know - say the rule against perpetuities maybe?If you are a young lawyer under the tyranny of an old lawyer, do yourself a favour and read The New Lawyer: How Settlement is Transforming the Practice of Law underneath the desk during your lunch break (you get one of those, right?)...
An angel at my table
Posted on October 10, 2008There's a post perfect for weekend musing over at Conflict Zen.For me, Tammy Lenski's piece it's about how everything - all the conflict we get in the middle of as mediators - is in the end about us; not us as mediators (it's never that) but us as individuals walking this planet, our kids, our communities, you know; US...
American Arbitration Association Mediation
Posted on October 09, 2008Three things to note about the American Arbitration Association's mediation offering on it's new look website;1. The Triple A must have the biggest branding challenge in the business - I mean "American Arbitration Association Mediation" - how does that work on any level?I suppose it works by doing what Kentucky Fried Chicken did when they rebranded to KFC when the F word got in the way, and make it AAA Mediation...
LEADR Australasian Fellow 2008/2010
Posted on October 07, 2008Last week I was honoured to be named LEADR's Australasian fellow for 2008/2010.Big shoes to fill, there having been only two previous fellows; retired Australian Federal Court Judge Tony Fitzgerald AC, QC and the multi-talented MATA founder member and mediator Jo Kalowski who divides her time these days between Paris and Sydney...
Counsel, strap on a pair!
Posted on October 06, 2008For a long while now, my top 10 mediation advocacy tips has encouraged counsel to be brave.Bravery can take many forms in mediation, from counsel backing their own advice when the easier road would be to settle or indeed default to trial - to something a little more counter-intuitive and possibly risky...
Personal Injury Claims Against AIG: Will They Get Paid?
Posted on October 03, 2008Sizzling stuff over at The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog;'I have received a number of calls from clients with personal injury claims against AIG fearing their claims are unprotected.Yesterday, we got a call in one of our AIG cases. Someone from Resolute Systems called and said that AIG had given them the assignment of settling large cases...
Are you a tactile mediator?
Posted on October 03, 2008Do you shake hands before and after you mediate?You should.Or maybe even a light, comforting touch on an elbow or forearm during a stressful session?Not convinced? Well then, have a read of How Touch Sustains Personal and Business Relationships'The oxytocin system, which can be fired up by touch, allowed us, in ancient times, to enter into economic exchange with others...
A day in the life of... Bernadette Willems
Posted on October 02, 2008Bernadette Willems is a family mediator at Simon Bergin Solicitors & Mediators of Cheshire in the UK.She gets up early, she swims at 7am, provides free intake sessions, convenes a mediation session where only one side turns up, supervises other mediators, meets up with satisfied clients and soaks in the bath before bed...
Can settlement orientated mediators like me cherry pick from transformative process?
Posted on October 01, 2008Like many commercial mediators I fall in and out of love with transformative mediation all the time.To its credit, the transformative mediation community has held the line forever on the question whether problem solving/settlement orientated mediators like me can cherry pick from their process...
Top 10 New Jersey mediation blogs
Posted on October 01, 2008New Jersey lawyer Donald Vanarelli has come up with his list of the top 10 New Jersey mediation blogs here.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Mediation's kissing cousin: Collaborative Law
Posted on October 01, 2008In Practical Insights from an Empirical Study of Cooperative Lawyers in Wisconsin John Lande outlines the results of a 2008 survey and offers recommendations to policy leaders for improving the practice of cooperative lawyering."Not surprisingly, many lawyers are reluctant to use a cooperative approach routinely...
Voices from the Outback
Posted on September 26, 2008I live in New Zealand, just 3 hours plane ride from the buzz of global cities like Sydney and Melbourne or the golden sands of Queensland.Yet many here know almost nothing about the Australian mediation scenery.There are possibly two reasons for this...
ACR's 8th Annual Conference in Texas
Posted on September 25, 2008This from Re:Solutions : Day 1 of the ACR National Conference.I really hope we hear from other bloggers who are attending the ACR's 8th Annual Conference Aspirations, Possibilities, and Realities:Expanding Principles,Practice, and Research in a Changing World ...
Heads-Up: Master Mediator Institute
Posted on September 25, 2008In a Q & A session today at The National Arbitration Forum blog - Bob Creo, CPR's Master Mediator, let the cat out of the bag and disclosed his plans for a Master Mediator Institute.Bob says it's an idea that he's had rattling around in his head for a number of years...
Mediators forced to work for free
Posted on September 25, 2008Seems to me our Southern Californian cousins should be active on this issue:L.A. bar opposes controversial resolution to pay mediators who work with local courts[click on the title of this post to read more...]
UK > London > Dispute resolution > Mediators
Posted on September 24, 2008Stop Press: The UK Legal 500 is just out and has a section devoted to mediators.Hot on the heels of my post about UK's mediation aristocracy comes the Coronation!The Legal 500 ranks London mediators into 3 bands.And of interest to the up and comers is a comment 'Demand continues to rise, and as some of mediation?s pioneers like Henry Brown and to a lesser extent Presiley Baxendale QC have retired, and others still (like David Shapiro) have scaled down their practices, the opportunity to spread work a little wider than an established few, appears, at last, to be a realistic prospect'...
Good advice from Harvard's own agony aunt
Posted on September 23, 2008[Click on Q or A to read more]From the September edition of PON's Negotiation newsletter [click on the title of this post to read more...]
UK mediation group aims is to create 'badge of seniority' analogous to Silk
Posted on September 22, 2008In a sign of our maturing profession, a small group of UK's mediation aristocracy known as The Panel of Independent Mediators plan to create 'a badge of seniority in the mediation profession analogous to the QC kite mark enjoyed by senior barristers' according to the latest issue of The Mediator Magazine...
Free video: An introduction to managing conflict
Posted on September 21, 2008Via Bill Waters' Campus ADR Tech Blog - a well produced video by Rick Olshak introducing conflict and styles of managing it.Watch or download here.Great for non commercial use by anyone teaching Mediation 101 (22 minutes). [click on the title of this post to read more...
Dunnett, Halsey and a guy called Milton
Posted on September 21, 2008Stephen Cantle from Kennedys last week posted an interesting take on the UK line of cases that sees the court encouraging parties to mediate because of the threat of costs penalty if they decline - even where they eventually win at trial. He concludes that when you look at what cases such as Dunnett ? and the later Court of Appeal decision in Halsey v Milton Keynes NHS Trust 2004 ? have actually achieved in practice, the answer is depressing...
Egg-graders are licensed - why aren't you?
Posted on September 18, 2008How Mediators Can Obtain Professional Certification And Thereby Elevate Their Profession: A look at IMI's voluntary credentialing program by Judith Meyer, Co-Vice Chair of IMI's Independent Standards Commission, and Michael Leathes, executive director of IMI...
Defining ?success? in dispute resolution training
Posted on September 18, 2008Just out from John Wade at Bond University in sunny Queensland - a must read for anyone who dabbles in mediation training: Defining ?success? in negotiation and other dispute resolution training."Once upon a time in the far off kingdom of Learningland, three negotiation courses were held during the same week in the capital city Rarelyfail...
Are mediators corrupting civil justice?
Posted on September 17, 2008Vickie Pynchon posts two feisty pieces here and here in response to my original article, which even caught the eye of The Wall Street Journal.And by doing so takes the 'are mediators corrupting civil justice?' debate far further than I would have dared...
East Meets West Today
Posted on September 16, 2008East Meets West: An International Dialogue on Mediation and Med-Arb in the U.S. and China2nd Videoconference between Beijing Arbitration Commission and Straus Institute Wednesday, September 17, 6 pm - 8 pmMendenhall Appellate CourtroomPepperdine University School of LawGet along there today - details hereView the BAC/Pepperdine first video conference in 2007 here[click on the title of this post to read more...
Settling is bad for business
Posted on September 16, 2008News this week that a well respected San Francisco litigation shop is in trouble and may close.The main reason being offered is that Heller Ehrman has settled too many of its cases and gave away 60% of the firm's revenue... highlighting once again the tightrope attorneys walk when weighing up the various tensions (client and firm) involved in deciding whether to negotiate or mediate...
The Privatizing of our Civil Justice System (and the insidious corruption of ADR)
Posted on September 14, 2008When you are fully immersed in mediation every day, it's easy to underestimate how strongly some people feel about it - take for example Harvard Law School's Peter Murray and his acerbic piece, The Privatization of Civil Justice that was published in the summer edition of the American Judicature Society's Judicature magazine...
October Journal of Conflict Resolution out
Posted on September 12, 2008The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (October 2008) is out.Full text PDF's cost but you can check the abstracts for free.Contents;Benjamin O. Fordham: Economic Interests and Congressional Voting on Security Issues [Abstract] [PDF] Jaroslav Tir and Michael Jasinski: Domestic-Level Diversionary Theory of War: Targeting Ethnic Minorities [Abstract] [PDF]Massimiliano Landi and Domenico Colucci: Rational and Boundedly Rational Behavior in a Binary Choice Sender?Receiver Game [Abstract] [PDF] Jonathan W...
Using Videos at Mediation
Posted on September 10, 2008If you are a lawyer in a personal injury jury jurisdiction yesterday's Using Videos at Mediation by Guy Kornblum is worth a read.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Simply brilliant: CEDR mediator speed dating today in London
Posted on September 09, 2008Wednesday 10 September, 4pm @ Bird & Bird, 15 Fetter Lane, London.Details here.You may want to choose your own subjects to discuss but CEDR has come up with four questions which might make an interesting topics for the speed dates:1) Why did you become a mediator?2) What is the best way to work with lawyers in a mediation?3) What classifies as a good result for a client in a mediation?4) When is and when isn't mediation good value for money?As with most speed dating events there will be score cards for participants to say who they would like to chat to again in more depth...
The Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli gets mediation
Posted on September 09, 2008These guys are on to it.'Trials, as a method of dispute resolution, have been trending downward for years. For example, the number of tort trials in the federal courts declined by 80% from 1985 to 2003. Of the 98,786 tort cases resolved in federal court in 2002 and 2003, only 1,647, or 1...
Evaluative mediation a hot button
Posted on September 09, 2008Some really interesting comments at mediate.com here in response to Jeff Kichaven's recent Evaluative Mediation Techniques Help Achieve Success article.Hat tip to Deb Clapshaw[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Commercial Mediation Survey: D.I.Y
Posted on September 08, 2008I have had some offline correspondence around my mediation survey posted yesterday - yes, by all means feel free to use it.I found it to be a great marketing exercise giving me a good excuse to contact my best repeat clients and those who I had not heard from in a while...
Commercial Mediation Survey
Posted on September 07, 2008Over the last couple of months I have polled, in a fairly unscientific way, some busy commercial litigators who I know to integrate mediation into their practice rather than simply using it to fight fires in an ad hoc kind of way.You may be interested in their answers to questions like these;>Rank the relative significance of these factors when picking a mediator >Rank the relative significance of these factors when picking a case for mediation >How often do you use mediation to resolve cases as compared with direct negotiation >Why would you elect a judicial settlement conference over a private mediation? >Generally, how do you rate your experience of mediator performance? >Do you think repeat use of a mediator diminishes impartiality? ...
So this is how a mediation blog dies...
Posted on September 07, 2008Nice knowing you ZapaBlog coming to us from the good people at Zapacap Mediation[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Two new mediate.com articles up today
Posted on September 02, 2008Worth a read;Evaluative Mediation Techniques Help Achieve Success by L.A's Jeff Kichaven'A mediator's evaluations can take as many forms as there are stars in the heavens... the most common are:1. Ask pointed questions that raise issues or imply answers...
Securitization Litigation & The Debt Crisis: What's on the Horizon?
Posted on September 01, 2008Here for a JAMS' piece on recent trends in mortgage and asset backed securities litigation and effective strategies for dealing with these cases, including how ADR can be used to successfully resolve complex securities disputes.[click on the title of this post to read more...
Help for the wired mediator
Posted on August 29, 2008If you are like me and on the road a lot, this PC World Guide to Mobile Living won't help with the loneliness, but it will assist you with your technology including;>How to find wi-fi hotspots in airports, hotels, and on the road>Access your home PC and files from remote locations>Watch your home TV on the go, regardless of your location>Turn your cell phone into a GPS or speech recognition device>Learn to shoot and share live video from your cell phone>Tips for keeping your laptop safe while in transit[click on the title of this post to read more...
Rate your mediator
Posted on August 29, 2008The Modern Woman's Divorce Guide provides a number of tools for divorcing women, including how to score the mediator (Yes, I know, I could have said that better).Take a look at;Mediator Interview Questionnaire - questions to interview mediators and find the best match, including;What are your opinions about divorce?What are your opinions about child custody and visitationHow many mediation matters or clients do you currently have?Mediator Evaluation Worksheet - for recording important facts about the mediators and any assistants, including;Did the receptionist handle my telephone calls pleasantly and confidently? Yes/NoIf the mediator wasn?t available, did the receptionist know when he/she would be available? Yes/NoDuring my office visit, did the receptionist greet me warmly? Yes/NoDid the receptionist mention other clients? names while in my presence? Yes/NoDid the staff discuss other cases within my earshot? Yes/NoLegit or BS?[click on the title of this post to read more...
What Happens When A Gorilla Firm Moves into Town?
Posted on August 29, 2008Read a JAMS/AAA/ADR Services or Judicate West instead of 'Biglaw' in this piece by legal marketing whiz Tom Kane.'First of all sit down, relax and have a good laugh. Because, unless the mega firm is moving into town for reasons relating to an existing client or a local merger, they really aren't a threat...
Girls Gone Wild
Posted on August 28, 2008Well, looks like this saga continues out of control; no change there.I'll assume you know the backgrond - long story short, this soft porn guy was thrown into the corner of a Florida jail for 11 months as a result of his antics at a mediation (of a civil claim bought by the parents of girls that he filmed)...
Contingency fees for mediators
Posted on August 26, 2008I have been on this soap box before at Why do so few mediators make any money? and Cheaper is a short term hit, not a long term advantage as well as other posts on this blog.But seriously what's wrong with the way we price ourselves? Why are some mediators not making money?Most mediators charge fees based on time...
The role of mediation in public law proceedings
Posted on August 25, 2008This one is for mediators in Commonwealth jurisdictions.New Zealand lawyer, Paul Radich, considers the role of ADR in public law/judicial review proceedings."While recent years have seen a marked increase in most areas of civil law in the use of alternative dispute resolution, most notably mediation, the field of public law has been the most resistant to this general trend...
I [heart] LA
Posted on June 12, 2008Next week, I am in sunny Los Angeles visiting colleagues and teaching the Mediating the Complex Case with JAM's Bruce Edwards at Pepperdine University's 21st Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution.Expect salty posts from beside the seaside at Malibu where the faculty is being lodged in style (and where even the beach is wireless!)...
Winners of the Make Talk Work International Video Competition
Posted on June 11, 2008View the winning videos (funded by JAMS) on the City University of New York Dispute Resolution Consortium website here (they seem slow to load)[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Practitioner perspectives on caucusing
Posted on June 09, 2008I thought this was an interesting exercise - contributions to a recent CADRE Practitioner Listserv thread on caucusing have been summarised and presented in a 3 page document here.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
12 Articles on Mediator Income
Posted on June 07, 2008Given the huge response to my post Why do so few mediators make any money? (more than double the number of readers), you may find these 12 posts - all with further links into the topic - from me and others on mediator income of interest;1. Let Me Tell You Why So Few Mediators Make Money (Dina Beach Lynch)2...
Find X
Posted on June 06, 2008Man, I can hardly spell when I get up on the whiteboard in a big mediation at the best of times - let alone do calculus.But this week, after I offered to track on the whiteboard a geotech's explanation of soil density around some suspect marina piles, I was asked to 'find X' on his diagram - sure, I saw his lips move, but all I heard was blah blah blah...
Why do so few mediators make any money?
Posted on June 05, 2008Now that I have your attention - this is just one of the chapter headings in a new article analysing the market for private mediators in the US by Ur?ka Velikonja, a teaching fellow in Harvard's Economics Department.Of course I would be remiss if I did not mention that the very next chapter asks Why do some mediators make so much money?In any event, it contains much interesting data on the business end of what we do, although Ur?ka surely the footnote has had its day?Some of the money quotes;>The vast majority of people who enter the mediation market drop out within two years...
2008 Lawyer As Problem Solver Award Announced
Posted on June 05, 2008The 2008 American Bar Association Lawyer as Problem Solver Award will be presented to Tina Rasnow, Coordinator of the Self-Help Legal Access Center Superior Court, County of Venturaas as the individual recipient.The Brooklyn, New York Attorney's Office under District Attorney Charles J...
Where do all the mediations go?
Posted on June 03, 2008Any jobbing mediator will know what I mean.It's like socks - where the hell do they go to between the washing machine and the sock draw?After a flap last week where I interrupted a mediation to return a red hot call from a lawyer looking for an urgent date, and followed that with a confirmation blackberry email on the run providing a spread of dates, I get this today;[click to enlarge] What, but @!*?I mean - I'd be delighted to be of assistance at any time in the future...
Mediating f2f holographically
Posted on June 02, 2008Ok, when you are truly a carbon neutral mediator in future years and refuse to travel big distances to your high stakes mediations, remember you saw world?s first live holographic video feed here on blah... blah...See these guys? They are on stage together, but the chap on the left is in Bangalore, India and the two on the right are in San Jose, CA...
The gathering pace of mediator feedback online
Posted on June 01, 2008As most readers will know from my recent posts on IMI Certification - online feedback by users of mediation is set to become all the rage.Here is an example of recent real IMI feedback on a UK mediator and, depending on how IMI's Global Mediator Certification gets on, this format may become the norm...
First Judge Judy, now 'The Peacemaker'
Posted on May 28, 2008Two L.A. mediators are shopping a TV pilot that would showcase their art - I am suprised there has not been more comment about this [click on the title of this post to read more...]
Is this OK?
Posted on May 28, 2008Well, maybe Owen 'settlement is the civil analogue of plea bargaining' Fiss had a better crystal ball than I gave him credit for in my recent post.With news this week from Clay County, Kentucky that its crime mediation program - in which felony cases are mediated - was wildly successful...
Is the market ready for LUMU rapid response?
Posted on May 27, 200820 May - London's Littleton Chambers has just launched a new, urgent mediation service.The Littleton Urgent Mediation Unit, or ?Lumu?, offers a rapid response mediation service dedicated to early and urgent dispute resolution. The LUMU tag line is ?a phone call in the morning could lead to a mediated exit agreement that same day...
The Problem with Court Mediation
Posted on May 27, 2008It's early in the week for another article of substance and I usually try to back end them, but this one is an exception.A new article in the George Mason Law Review by Leonard Riskin and Nancy Welsh just might scratch an itch for many of us.Is that All There is? 'The Problem' in Court-Oriented Mediation says that court-oriented mediation now reflects the dominance of lawyers and insurance claims adjusters - and one shot players are not catered for...
Five Steps to Maximizing Dollars when the Objective is Money
Posted on May 26, 2008A new article by Angelenos Jeff Krivis and Mariam Zadeh of First Mediation Corporation is worth a read.Published in CPR's Alternatives in February, read Five Steps to Maximizing Dollars when the Objective is Money."... this article synthesizes into Five Steps the intangible elements that factor into the defense perspective when arriving at a settlement...
Settling Significant Cases
Posted on May 25, 2008Continuing a thread that started with my post When families lose a loved one, do they want the cash or the courthouse? and then continued a week or so ago, Justices seek justice, not peace.The question is whether settlement is the 'civil analogue of plea bargaining'?Now, Michael Moffitt of ADR Prof Blog adds the next chapter in our journey, encouraging us to read Settling Significant Cases by Jeff Seul one time Harvard Law and now of Techlawlife and the Boston office of Holland & Knight...
Making Proposals by Harvard
Posted on May 23, 2008Click here for the lead article from this month's edition of the Harvard Negotiation Newsletter - something to send to mediation parties as they prepare, or add value to your offering by sending it to attorney gatekeepers for them to give to their clients; Will your proposals hit the mark?[click on the title of this post to read more...
Video clips from Belfast 2008 European Mediation Conference
Posted on May 23, 2008Peace building ? John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding, on three ways think about peace building.Women, gender and mediation in peacemaking ? Antonia Potter, author of We the Women: why conflict mediation is not just a job for men, why women should contribute to resolution of armed conflict at the highest levels...
Commitment to the process: my lesson today
Posted on May 22, 2008Always question the guy who sits at the table with a boarding pass sticking out of his shirt pocket.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Too much information?
Posted on May 21, 2008More than ever before it seems to me that we are reading what has historically been confidential mediation information.Most of the time, in the blogosphere at least, it's a mediation participant ventilating about the mediator, the ex or the telephone company in some form of online diary - like here - just to pull one of yesterday's examples off the wires...
The Future of Civil Mediation
Posted on May 15, 2008Sir Anthony Clarke, Master of the Rolls on The Future of Civil Mediation -keynote speech at last week's Civil Mediation Council National Conference, Birmingham, UK."... what can perhaps be said is that a horse (even a very obstinate horse) is more likely to drink if taken to water...
Justices seek justice, not peace*
Posted on May 15, 2008Just 3 years after Fisher & Ury's Getting to Yes started us on a journey most readers of this blog are yet to complete, Yale University's Owen Fiss delivered his powerful 1984 polemic Against Settlement (I'm far too promiscuous with my must reads but this is a must, must read)...
The Power of Mediation
Posted on May 14, 2008Wednesday, 14 May 2008 - Former UK Foreign Secretary Douglas - now Lord - Hurd on the power of mediation in political and diplomatic conflicts[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Two new videos on negotiation
Posted on May 12, 20081. Negotiation & The Art of War Strategies by Osama El-Kadi, who specialises in applying Sun Tzu Art of War strategies in advanced strategic negotiation training.It's a bit sales'ee but see what you think.Watch the video here2. Comparing American and Chinese Negotiation Styles by Terry Hird, UC Berkeley, Founder of Negotiation-International...
Delegates at AAA Annual Meeting use electronic voting to express their views on mediator competency certification
Posted on May 11, 2008Washington DC, May 9th 2008 - Participants at the American Arbitration Association's 2008 Annual Meeting spent two hours focusing on mediator competency certification.Presentations by Wolf Von Kumberg of Northrop Grumman Corporation, Nancy Lesser of PAX ADR LLC, Christopher Honeyman of Convenor Conflict Management and Michael Leathes of IMI were followed by a discussion...
Spying on Big Law
Posted on May 09, 2008My view? We ignore what's happening within our client base at our peril - so law firms are fair game - we mediators need to spy.Take a look at this crystal gazing trends in corporate law - posted over at Harvard Law School's Corporate Governance Blog...
What UK Mediators Charge
Posted on May 09, 2008In a kiss and tell article in the latest issue of The Mediator Magazine all is revealed about UK mediators' charge out rates in The Price is Wrong"... Setting charge-out rates for mediators is a complicated and sensitive issue. In the UK the market is so oversupplied that if the number of commercial cases available were distributed evenly among accredited mediators, no mediator would be handling more than one a year...
Diversity in the conflict resolution business
Posted on May 08, 2008Bob Creo, a Pittsburgh attorney-neutral, has just completed a one-year mentor fellowship he designed and funded.He is now readying a diversity plan he hopes will be replicated by conflict resolution practitioners coast to coast.The goal, says Bob, "is to provide access to ADR experience to younger attorneys stymied by provider panels that require stiff training and calendar minimums"...
Dinner with a theorist?
Posted on May 06, 2008Back in 2006 11 dinners were arranged at 11 of Boston's finest restaurants by the organizers of the Environmental and Public Policy section meeting of the Association of Conflict Resolution.At each of these dinners two worlds, one inhabiting lofty towers all across America and the other more comfortable with the dank smell of the practice coal-face, collided over appetizers and mains (and pudding for the adventurous) as they engaged in some novel ADR theory/practice dialogues...
Construction Defect Mediation
Posted on May 05, 2008Via The New Jersey Law Blog an article in the NJLJ titled The Importance of Insurance Coverage in Mediating Complex Construction Claims (seems slow to load, so give it time)And separately, news of a book out this month from well known UK mediator David Richbell (who's website describes him as "possibly the nicest person in mediation"...
Mediator as juror
Posted on May 05, 2008Massachusetts mediator Patrick Field got called up for jury service at the Middlesex County Superior Court in January.'As a mediator and citizen, I asked myself: how could two professionals - not to mention the judicial system - let a case of so little cash value wind its way all the way to a jury trial at such great legal expense? Frankly I felt like the parties were wasting the Court?s time, the jurors? time, and my tax dollars...
OMG, you guys would tell me if I'm becoming too preachy, right?
Posted on May 03, 2008A message from mediator and annual cyberweek hero, John DeBruyn of Denver, about yesterday's ABA post, was sitting in my email this morning;"...Having presided over the decline and fall of a once very active email lawyer discussion group Network-Lawyers, I have a theory...
10 Great Papers from ABA's Seattle Conference
Posted on May 02, 2008Congratulations to ABA's Dispute Resolution Section for getting its Seattle Spring Conference papers held in April online so soon (including PowerPoint presentations, handouts and papers from most sessions).Here are my picks (for a full set of papers and links go here);1...
When families lose a loved one, do they want the cash or the courthouse?
Posted on April 30, 2008It's the first time I've become emotional reading a research paper, but an article by USC academic Gillian Hadfield got to me. Sad movies sometimes do that too, but I'm usually safe around law school publications.Maybe it was because of a mediation, only just completed, involving a young and troubled life taken...
Conflict Coaching Podcast
Posted on April 29, 2008Australian trainers, Julie Walker and Lynora Brooke, talked recently with LEADR's, Fiona Hollier about integrating conflict coaching into ADR practice.Listen here[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Law:Alltop
Posted on April 29, 2008Alltop imports stories from all sorts of top blogs and collects the headlines of the five most recent stories into topics like food, small business, extreme sports etc.When you place the cursor over a headline, part of the post is displayed so that you can decide if you?d like to read it...
Of War and Negotiation
Posted on April 28, 2008Robert Benjamin has now completed three parts of his Of War and Negotiation series.I posted on part one here.Go here for parts two and threeNext Part 4; From the Peloponnesian War to the War in Iraq: Why Hawks Win.[click on the title of this post to read more...
Well I couldn't admit to knowing all seven, could I?
Posted on April 28, 2008Message From: Geoff SharpTo: Victoria Pynchon, Mediator LASent: Monday 28 April, 7.30amSubject: Got 2 for me?Vickie,I'm doing a post on 'Seven Habits of Highly Useless Mediators' and I'm two short.What would be at the top of your list?From: Victoria PynchonTo: Geoff SharpSubject: Got 2 for me?1...
Guest post by psychiatrist Dr Mark Lauderdale
Posted on April 27, 2008I have been corresponding with Canadian psychiatrist Dr Mark Lauderdale after being impressed by some of his writing on the Web.As a result Mark has kindly agreed to post on a topic that frustrates the heck out of many mediators - glass half empty parties...
MTI is on a membership drive
Posted on April 25, 2008MTI's (Mediation Works) new community blog signals an attempt to increase its profile via a 'New Interactive Online MTI Community'.Listen to the community administrator, Wayne Messick, explaining MTI's plans for the Community on yesterday's 200 strong conference call here...
KeepTube
Posted on April 24, 2008I thought this may be useful to those mediation trainers who like to use YouTube videos on mediation in a training session, but who often find themselves without a broadband connection in the training room.Well, now KeepTube allows you to download a YouTube video and store it on your hard drive or memory stick for use whenever you want - without having to be connected to the Internet...
Breaking news: Europe gets it sorted
Posted on April 24, 2008Brussels, 24 April 2008, the European Parliament formally approved the European Council?s common position on the new Mediation Directive.The purpose of the Directive is to facilitate access to dispute resolution and to promote the amicable settlement of disputes by encouraging the use of mediation and by ensuring a sound relationship between mediation and judicial proceedings...
Florida's "#1 Website" on ADR and
Posted on April 23, 2008Florida's "#1 Website" on ADR and a blog that hedges its bets with two titles, one misspelled, may be of interest to those that see arbitration and mediation as being in competition.Readers of this blog that play for both teams should read National Law Journal Article Oversells Gloom and Legislation on Arbitration that begins: " Is it just us or are we sensing a tide of legal-journalism pieces prophecizing (sic) the end to arbitration?...
John Lassey - where have you been?!
Posted on April 22, 2008A new bright star has appeared on the horizon announced yesterday, as is appropriate, by The World Directory of ADR Blogs.John Lassey's Mediation Stuff is full of promise and scratches an itch in the mediation blogosphere by focusing on 'the resolution of civil litigation cases ? those matters where the primary motivation for the participants is money'...
Interested in mediation around the globe?
Posted on April 22, 2008Here's the latest material uploaded to Mediation WorldUSA - Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners' Guide Thursday, 13th March 2008Philippines - Moving on with Court-Annexed Mediation on Wheels Monday, 10th March 2008Italy - Special Rules on Mediation in Law no...
Michael Leathes of the International Mediation Institute #2
Posted on April 21, 2008Michael Leathes spoke in Wellington today (see my Friday post).Here is his PowerPoint presentation that sets out the main points of IMI's plans for a global mediator certification;IMI-April 2008 - Get more documentsAnd here is an actual completed feedback form for a UK mediator that goes to make up a mediator's 'feedback digest' - an integral part of the certification process;IMI Feedback Form - Get more documents[click on the title of this post to read more...
Want to join an international listserve of arbitrators, mediators and peacemakers?
Posted on April 21, 2008Los Angeles mediator Lee Jay Berman and friends on the International Subcommittee of the State Bar of California's ADR Committee have started an email list and want you to join.They describe it as,'... a worldwide gathering of all who call themselves mediators, arbitrators and/or peacemakers, and who do this work, in any forum...
Videos of Dispute Systems Design at Harvard
Posted on April 20, 2008Last month I reported on live blogging action from the March Dispute Systems Design Symposium at Harvard.Well, now those nice folks at Harvard have made it so you can watch the highlights. It's just like being there and they are great quality clips;Introduction to the theory and promise of dispute systems design by Professor Robert Bordone>Panel 1: Dealing with the Inevitable: DSD in the Institutional Context >Panel 2: Dispute System Design on a Global Scale>Panel 3: DSD in Times of Crisis>Panel 4: A Constitutional Issue: DSD at the Birth of a Nation >Panel 5: Emerging Issues in DSD[click on the title of this post to read more...
Michael Leathes of the International Mediation Institute
Posted on April 17, 2008Michael Leathes of the International Mediation Institute in The Hague is here in New Zealand.He's on holiday but the Wellington mediation mafia have convinced him that it would be in the interests of the tyres on his rental if he allowed us to put on a breakfast for him as he passes through our fair city next Monday...
What It Takes To Be A Great Mediation Lawyer
Posted on April 16, 2008One of the worst looks for a mediation counsel is when the capacity for independent thought is lost. I see it only occasionally.This could be because the client is a bully or counsel is working from a position of greed or lack of experience.My own view is that when it does happen, it's usually because the lawyer is lazy and has failed to manage the client's expectations as the case has matured from filing to mediation...
What Are Your Soft Skills?
Posted on April 15, 2008This from the always entertaining Chuck Newton.It's for all us refugees from Big Law and those too sensible to go there in the first place... attorney-mediators will see many familiar flags.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Mediation domain names for sale
Posted on April 15, 2008This is just in from Deborah Schick Laufer, Manager for Mediation Services at the World Bank and Executive Director of the Federal ADR Network.It's your opportunity to buy some great dispute resolution related domain names. Contact the seller directly at AttorneyMediator@gmail...
Eleven step foreclosure mediation program model
Posted on April 13, 2008Here for a generous resource (including a 100+ page Complete Foreclosure Mediation Program Model document) posted 11 April from the Supreme Court of Ohio if your community is grappling with your own version of the 2008 debt crisis.The model, which includes processes, forms and other documents, focuses on residential foreclosure cases and contains options to enable courts to make modifications based on available mediation resources while also meeting the needs of their communities...
Demand for in-prison restorative justice conferences
Posted on April 12, 2008Interested in Restorative Justice?Read about this project to fund restorative justice processes in NZ prisons, and how the demand for in-prison conferences is increasing with two-thirds of all requests coming from prisoners, with the rest coming from the victims...
The changing nature of the plenary session in mediation
Posted on April 09, 2008I couldn't disagree more with this post from Hull & Hull's excellent Toronto Estate Law Blog but what the hell, read it and weep."However, plenary sessions have largely changed. It is now widely recognized that allowing counsel and parties to make opening statements only inflames the situation...
Dreaming? Or living the dream?
Posted on April 09, 2008"Hi Mr Sharp, I was given your name to call. I was wondering if you ah... had time to meet up... ah, just wanting to pick your brains about starting out as a mediator - coffee's on me... "Well, to save us all some time and money, can I just get this off my chest...
Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality
Posted on April 08, 2008In response to a request I made of Prof Michael Moffitt over at Indisputably in my post DR Works In Progress he has now put his paper The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work) up on the web.He gave this paper at Harvard Law School a while back...
The good, the bad, and the ugly of negotiators
Posted on April 08, 2008New Zealand mediator and IAM Fellow, Deborah Clapshaw shares her observations on lawyers behaving badly in mediation - published in this week's NZLawyer Magazine Online.Deborah, a leading mediator, has a sophisticated take on lawyer behaviours in mediation touching on the empathiser, the abuser, the reciprocator, the liker and all stations in between...
Mediating Family Violence
Posted on April 07, 2008Out today in the latest issue of the Mayhew-Hite Report on Dispute Resolution and the Courts Mediation Can Work for Juvenile-Perpetrated Domestic Violence: A Second Look at Family Violence Mediation is sure to be a controversial piece.Ohio State University Moritz College of Law student Paige Schweitzer argues that disputes involving domestic violence by children against parents are not benefited by traditional adversarial adjudication...
What next for Superman?
Posted on April 07, 2008It's only fitting that a SuperLawyer (or at least a Top 40 California Neutral) mediates Superman's future trajectory in this IP dispute after the Court orders mediation within 60 days.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Four New Mediation Blogs
Posted on April 06, 2008It rained all weekend down in our corner of the globe, so we sat by the fire as winter arrived. I surfed the web without wires. The dog snored. And I found four new mediation blogs in varying states of repair. While there are too many adds for my taste - including one for the ladies from CatchHimAndKeepHim...
Yeah well, this says it all...
Posted on April 04, 2008[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Bond Newsletter
Posted on April 04, 2008Bond University's eagerly awaited Dispute Resolution Centre's April Newsletter is just out!Edited by John Wade, the letter always delivers sophisticated content for the experienced mediator.There's a good article on Overconfidence at mediation and in a follow up to my popular post The Secrets of Successful (and Unsuccessful) Mediators - a completed Questionnaire for Advanced Mediators that John gives to experienced mediators in his regular Advanced Mediation Courses about what they see and do at mediations...
Amanda Bucklow on how to make mediation agreements stick
Posted on April 01, 2008Amanda Bucklow, who I introduced to readers of this blog recently with the launch of her Mediation Times, has usefully commented on an old post of mine about making mediated settlement agreements more durable.She says;'Hello Geoff This is a question I have pondered a great deal recently and in doing so I had two thoughts or even insights:Firstly, if you are a good mediator then you necessarily build excellent rapport and trust...
Next time I'm in the Big Apple
Posted on March 30, 2008Next time I'm in the Big Apple and standing on the pavement oohing and ahhing at the Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway in my floral shirt, I'm going to pluck up the courage to ignore the sign and go through those heavy revolving doors to see attorney mediator David White of White & Associates who sent me this article by a retired New Jersey Judge, in response to my last post What a Judge needed to unlearn before he became a mediator...
What a Judge needed to unlearn before he became a mediator
Posted on March 28, 2008Nice post over at the mysterious mediatorinthemaking.com (adventures in learning the practice of mediation) about the power of the process."I had a great learning moment in my PON class last night... Our student mediator shared that not being a judge, not being able to provide any legal advice or make any decisions about the case, he was uncertain where to go...
My toughest mediation
Posted on March 26, 2008I learn a lot when other mediators tell war stories.Here are three well known UK mediators talking about a hard day at the office....:: Andrew Paton :: Jane Andrewartha :: Michel Kallipetis QC ::[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Networking for Introverted Mediators
Posted on March 25, 2008Having been at a function last week where I felt like a fish out of water, I should have read this from Canadian legal research blog Slaw.ca before I went. [click on the title of this post to read more...]
Is Felony Mediation The Cure?
Posted on March 24, 2008Interesting post yesterday about mediating crime over at the NY criminal defense blog Simple Justice with links going further into the story.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
More litigation = More mediation?
Posted on March 23, 2008We are told the global downturn that this blog reported on some time ago (that's a train, stupid) has now arrived.Will it help or hinder mediators - does the increase in litigation that normally accompanies such events mean more mediation?Find out what some UK mediators think here...
The Mediation Times
Posted on March 20, 2008Welcome to The Mediation Times, a brand new blog from UK commercial mediator Amanda Bucklow which she describes as a 'new blog for events, articles and opinions'.Although I couldn't immediately see how to do it, one of the innovative aspects of this blog is that experienced mediators can find the profiles of 'willing assistants' - and new mediators themselves can upload a profile...
The way mediators ask questions is absolutely front and centre to what we do.
Posted on March 19, 2008When I'm training I often hold up an ordinary object, whatever happens to be about like a stapler or a chair, and ask people to fire questions at me about it.Through that simple exercise, ahead of many others, I can often recognise the future mediators in the room...
I guess Max Factor III had different
Posted on March 17, 2008I guess Max Factor III had different ideas about what 'make-up' meant when he decided not to go into the family business and become a mediator.And that's our gain when he penned this interesting piece Combatting Hardball Negotiation Tactics in the Los Angeles Daily Journal in December 07...
You got a gong for WHAT??
Posted on March 17, 2008My friend and colleague, Deputy Dean of Law at Bond University (Queensland, Australia) Professor Laurence Boulle has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.The official blurb says it is 'for service to the law, particularly in the fields of mediation, alternative dispute resolution and education, and as a contributor to legal publications...
Please read this blog via RSS
Posted on March 13, 2008RSS is more confusing than it needs to be but if you are starting to follow multiple blogs it's the only way to fly.What the heck is it? I hear you ask - well read here.If you have subscribed to blah... blah... by email update, that's great but what about trying RSS? - most of the hundreds of readers who read this blog do so via RSS...
3 edgy posts out there in the blogosphere today
Posted on March 11, 2008From CResearch What about the litigation mediation creates? linking to an article that takes a systemic look at litigation about mediation.The article is by Hamline Professor James Coben who has been producing short videos illustrating mediation litigation for a while now...
Latest UK case on the costs and timing of mediation
Posted on March 10, 2008My colleague Toby Gee, a barrister at Crown Office Chambers in London, has kindly provided me with a recent UK decision that has something to say on the costs and timing of mediation.The case is another in the line of cases, Halsey and Dunnett v Railtrack Plc, and said that a premature mediation simply wasted every body's time and could sometimes lead to a hardening of positions on both sides, which made any subsequent attempt at settlement doomed to fail...
Lawyers, rapists and mediators
Posted on March 09, 2008This gives mediators a bad name."... it?s like they?ve just attached a straw and began sucking... the mediator sent us the following e-mail request for an update: ?How?s everything going??Invoice item: email to clients $20.00I wrote back and said ?everything is fine...
UN announces new 'on-call' mediation team
Posted on March 07, 2008A quick-response UN Mediation Standby Team* has been set up by the United Nations to advise peace envoys in the field and is composed of six members, described as the ?world?s best people on the topic of mediation"And I'm very proud to say that the Senior Expert Mediator appointed to the group is a New Zealander - Andrew Ladley is an academic from here in Wellington - and he has regularly been seen flying off to exotic places like Cambodia, East Timor, Jamaica and Gambia to work in the election and constitution-making areas...
Live blogging and video from Dispute Systems Design Symposium at Harvard
Posted on March 07, 2008Michael Moffitt from over at ADR Prof Blog reports he is sitting in the audience of an enormous symposium being hosted by Harvard Negotiation Law Review and which is set to explore aspects of Dispute Systems Design today and tomorrow.The symposium is hosting live blogging on the presentations and video may become available at some stage...
5 Ways to Coach Parties in Mediation
Posted on March 06, 2008I have written before on coaching in mediation asking - is it OK to coach people on how to say something or who should say it in a mediation?If I think of coaching opportunities I have had since Christmas, they have been;1. Talking to parties about who is the best person in the group to make the offer to the other side and even who they might want to look at when they do...
Making Mediation Your Day Job
Posted on March 04, 2008My signed copy of Dr Tammy Lenski's new book, Making Mediation Your Day Job, arrived in the post today.Many marketing books are old wine in new bottles - this is not.It's a fresh perspective on building your own empire and is single minded in its focus on the business of mediation, not the business of making widgets...
A post for cheap mediators
Posted on March 02, 2008Via the [non] billable hour comes momentous news that, if you are too cheap to purchase a whiteboard for your mediation room, there is a paint that makes any wall into a dry erase writing surface.Just paint Markee? over your existing wall and write on it with a dry erase pen as you would a whiteboard...
Mediation - a 'dishonest kind of process'
Posted on March 02, 2008In a surprise announcement this week, Jim Farmer QC - one of this country's top trial lawyers - declared, via the latest edition of The National Business Review, that while he had not attended many mediations, its emphasis on reaching a settlement above all else struck him as 'a dishonest kind of process'...
Attack Iran, With Words
Posted on February 28, 2008This blog is not overly political and normally confines itself to the business and hands-on practise of mediation, leaving lofty principled debates to well qualified others.But when I received this message from a senior figure like Bill Lincoln - who is the Executive Director of the Conflict Resolution, Research and Resource Institute, Inc and co-founder of the International Coalition of Concerned Mediators and who caught our attention in 2006 with a Mediators? Call to Action developed at Keystone, Colorado - I felt it deserved air time...
Ethical Codes and the Commercial Mediator
Posted on February 26, 2008Over at ADR Prof Blog, Michael Moffit posts a PowerPoint presentation by Dwight Golann and Ellen Waldman on Ethical Codes and the Commercial Mediator.The underlying message is that ethical codes are clear, practice is not - ask any seasoned mediator, they'll say the same in a tired but resigned tone...
Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers return to the negotiation table
Posted on February 26, 2008[video]Thanks, I mean blame, Eric Galton[click on the title of this post to read more...]
ABA Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality
Posted on February 24, 2008The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution's Task Force on Improving Mediation Quality completed its report in 2007 and got only average coverage at the time.But all is forgiven now that the complete 47 page report has recently been posted on the Web.On the Task Force were notables like John Lande, John Bickerman and Homer LaRue and it was established in response to concerns about poor-quality mediation services in commercial cases...
Tammy Lenski is on the move
Posted on February 24, 2008Dr Tammy Lenski announces that her blog at Lenski.com will be no more.In its place is a new site and a new direction, for both her writing and her conflict resolution work at ConflictZen.comTammy, this sounds exciting and will be just fine as long as your mediation focused writing at the wonderful mediator tech is staying right where it is...
Would you borrow the money to pay another mediator to mentor you for $400/hr?
Posted on February 23, 2008A newbie asks; There is successful mediator in my town who is willing to mentor me for $400 an hour. I would need to borrow the money - should I do it?Find out here[click on the title of this post to read more...]
LIVE Blogging
Posted on February 20, 2008For those who aspire to blog live from their next mediators' gathering like Vickie Pynchon is doing this week from Colorado at the Mediators Without Borders event or as I did from IAM's Portland meet, try the brand new CoveritLive - it puts the LIVE into live blogging - your commentary streams live to your blog and publishes in real time like an instant message...
Susan Hammer ventures Downunder
Posted on February 20, 2008Over the years we have had a number of mediators escape the clutches of a northern winter in search of a cracking New Zealand summer. And it's the mid 20 C's (that's about 80 fahrenheit) today in Wellington.So I was delighted to pick up from the airport Wednesday, prominent Portland mediator Susan Hammer and her artist husband, Lee...
YouTube for Documents
Posted on February 18, 2008Every once and a while the Net throws up a gold nugget like .docstoc - on the surface it's a pretty cool free professional document sharing site - the usual stuff -legal/business/financial etc.You upload and you download. Or use .docstoc to store your documents online and access them from anywhere - choose to keep them private or allow anyone to download them...
Live Blogging from the Mediators Beyond Borders Congress
Posted on February 17, 2008A wonderful live post here on the 12 Ways Systems Resist Change from Vickie Pynchon who is at the Mediators Beyond Borders Congress at the St. Malo Retreat Center in Colorado, February 15 - 18.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Fee discounts
Posted on February 17, 2008As regular visitors to this blog will know I have, especially in the early days of writing, made a habit of posting on the nuts and bolts of mediation practice.It has always seemed a valuable space to fill.Like most mediators my standard mediation agreement, which I provide to parties to sign prior to the mediation, contains a cost sharing provision -- where the parties each pay half of my fees...
The Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates and the Forum for Mediation Advocacy
Posted on February 14, 2008Now that I've been a mediator for a while it's too easy to forget those early days when I was discovering mediation as an advocate in the courtroom one day, and feeling my way in a mediation the next.It sure was hard to make the switch.My head was always playing catch up, so I was still in rights mode at the start of the mediation and desparately looking for interests in the litigation when I struggled to my feet at the bar table at 10am the next morning...
Call for Nominations: 2008 ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award and Lawyer as Problem Solver Exercises
Posted on February 13, 2008A message from ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Co-Chairs David White and Woody Mosten;On behalf of my Co-Chair, Woody Mosten, and myself, I write to solicit nominations for the 2008 ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award and the Lawyer as Problem Solver Exercises (?LAPSE?)...
Hi, I'm a recovering attorney
Posted on February 10, 2008This morning I sat through what turned out to be a crossover between a mediators' meet and the little I remember of anti-natal classes before the birth of our first child. [Where, all those years ago, we sat on the floor in our stocking feet after a hot day at the salt mines and introduced our eager first-time-parent-selves; "Hi, I'm Martin - I'm a struggling artist, my passion for art comes before everything" (ha! say goodbye to that, buddy); or "Hi, my name's Jo - I'm a foreign correspondent, just back from covering the war in Eritrea...
Do you use your mediation resolution rate to sell yourself?
Posted on February 04, 2008I do. Always been uneasy about it, though. Too artificial. Think I might stop.Are those who take the high road and don't, disadvantaged from a marketing point of view, do you think?via indexed[click on the title of this post to read more...]
David Shapiro is moving on
Posted on February 04, 2008Many readers of this blog will know/have heard of UK/US mediator David Shapiro who is leaving his leading UK mediation lawfirm, SJ Berwin, to pursue his career as an independent mediator at the age of 8o.Phillip Howell-Richardson, well known in his own right, replaces Shapiro at the helm of the firm's alternative dispute resolution practice...
NP@PON's free newsletter for negotiation teachers
Posted on February 02, 2008Did you know that NP@PON (Negotiation Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School) publishes a free, quarterly e-newsletter, Teaching Negotiation, which highlights current research, new teaching materials and upcoming events, as well as offering a discussion forum for negotiation instructors?The February edition is just out today...
Agreements that stick
Posted on February 01, 2008It truly is a lovely summer day here in Wellington, NZ.The harbour has an emerald sheen to its unpolluted waters as large luxury liners disgorge tourists in floral shirts onto our streets to spend a small part of the $18.5 billion we will earn from visitors to our shores this peak season...
Real judges mediate
Posted on January 29, 2008OMG! Two jurists have just been named trial judges of the year because of their mediation skills... what is the world coming to?On Feb. 8, two longtime jurists ? U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Louise DeCarl Adler and U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas ? will be honored for their tag team effort in mediating the largest Catholic bankruptcy case in the US where the Diocese of San Diego agreed to pay $198 million settlement...
Alan Childress makes a good point
Posted on January 28, 2008Just posted over at Legal Profession Blog in a post titled Value of Litigation: Against Settlement and Mediation;"...Which brings me to my point about Bernard Goetz. Before his notorious vigilante subway stint, Goetz was once actually mugged. And then rather than watching the perp be prosecuted and brought to justice, he was forced to go through a mediation process with his mugger...
CPR Institute names best article for 2007
Posted on January 28, 2008The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution gave Prof John Lande of MU School of Law its award for the best 2007 professional article for his, Principles for Policymaking about Collaborative Law and Other ADR Processes.John was honored at CPR?s annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City...
That's a train, stupid
Posted on January 28, 2008If you are a mediator who relies on the legal world for your cases, you need to read this and be sure to follow the links.[click on the title of this post to read more...]
Today's live webcast from Ohio State a huge success
Posted on January 24, 2008As Chance the Gardener said "I like to watch".So it was that I not only learnt about Dispute Systems Design from the distinguished panel at the Ohio State Symposium but also - from the lady in the stylish coat sitting by the camera - that you simply can't fly to Bloomington, Indiana from Columbus so she is taking a rental as you read this...
Live Webcast from Ohio State - Thursday
Posted on January 23, 2008The Second Generation of Dispute System Design: Reoccurring Problems and Potential Solutions tomorrow (January 24) at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.Watch the Live Webcast here which starts when the symposium begins @ 9am eastern - that's Thursday 6am in LA and 2pm in London and 3am in Wellington on Friday!Thanks to Sarah Cole over at the wonderful ADR Profs Blog for the heads up - just a few years ago a) we would have had no way of knowing about an event like this, and b) those of us not having the pleasure of living in or around Columbus, OH 43210 would miss out...
The developing field of animal mediation
Posted on January 22, 2008Forget about cross-cultural mediation - that's chickenfeed.Shoot... what I want to do is mediate with the damn chicken - because cross-species mediation is where it's at. (So, why? - why did you cross the road?)With the rise and rise of Animal Law that is exactly where we're headed as I realised when I visited Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon recently...
Robert Benjamin's Of War and Negotiation #2
Posted on January 22, 2008Robert Benjamin's Of War and Negotiation #2 was posted today at mediate.com "... war and negotiation are not polar opposites, as they are so frequently presented. They inform each other as modes of conflict management and the best warriors must be effective negotiators and the best negotiators must study warfare strategies and techniques"Here for Of War and Negotiation #1But not everyone is convinced of Benjamin's recurring battle cry that now runs through his writings - "He is a very likeable guy, so I dove into [Obama: Reflections of a Hard Core Negotiator] with enthusiasm...
The Secrets of Successful (and Unsuccessful) Mediators
Posted on January 21, 2008In my What makes a Supermed? post last year I mentioned 3 worthwhile articles.Two of them - The Secrets of Successful Mediators (Negotiation Journal, July 2005) and The Secrets of Successful (and Unsuccessful) Mediators (Negotiation Journal, October 2007) cost $29 each to download and anyway the third article - the free MATA Advanced Mediator Skills Project was as good as you'd want...
Mediators earn $66,800
Posted on January 17, 2008Hot on the heels of yesterday's post showing mediation to be just a quarter of the cost of lawyer-to-lawyer settlements (and less than 10% of litigation) comes this recent article advising the median pay of a mediator in the US is $66,800.Apparently most mediators charge between $100 and $250 an hour but need to supplement their work with other employment to end up with a middle-class annual income...
Mediation just a quarter of the cost of lawyer-to-lawyer settlements
Posted on January 16, 2008Apparently David Hoffman's Boston Law Collaborative has analyzed 199 of its recent divorce cases, and found that mediation, collaborative divorce and litigation all produced high rates of successful settlement.Mediation was by far the least expensive option, with a median cost of $6,600, compared to $19,723 for a collaborative divorce, $26,830 for settlements negotiated by rival lawyers, and $77,746 for full-scale litigation [read more][click on the title of this post to read more...
This is not a job blog, but...
Posted on January 15, 2008... this message today from transformative mediation's Robert A. Baruch Bush was just too important not to post.At first I thought the Great Man had written to me alone, but then the email turned out to be to a zillion others as well.But if you didn't get it here's the message;"I'm writing to inform you of a great opportunity to work as the director of a Transformative Mediation Clinic at Hofstra Law School, in New York, where I teach...
Aw man, I'm on holiday - don't make me work!
Posted on January 14, 2008Hey, it was nice to be missed at the all new Mediation Channel.com and even be considered worthy of a missing person alert by Chris Annunziata.And thanks also to Vickie Pynchon, eleanorburnejones and Tammy Lenski for noticing one voice was missing from the usual chorus...
Ed Hillary 1919 - 2008
Posted on January 13, 2008Before kids, before the mortgage, even before getting ahead seemed important I had the mountains - they had everything I needed as I sought to find a place at life's table.With climbing expeditions to Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan consuming 8 glorious years of my life as a young man I was introduced to lives well lived and lonely cold deaths - sustaining me, even today...
Thanks
Posted on December 18, 2007OK folks, I'm done.Thank you for visiting in 2007 - there are plenty of places to go on the web and you know that I am very grateful that you make here one of them.This blog is a labour of love and although the thought of doing it all again next year is daunting, energy and inspiration permitting, I will do so in the hope you will again stop by in 2008...
Last week's impasse
Posted on December 16, 2007An impasse had developed, the mediation was grid locked.As many had before him, the mediator hesitated outside the door and sucked in as much oxygen as he could from the stuffy hallway before turning the knob to the defense breakout room.They were an unhappy bunch...
Christmas giving
Posted on December 13, 2007I've made a bit of a thing of Christmas client gifts over the years.Last year I gave up luxurious wool socks with a card saying 'just because it's alternative, don't get cold feet'.A Christmas before that it was telescopic hiking sticks with a note reminding the recipient that mediation '...
Not a good sign in the LA writers' strike
Posted on December 12, 2007When parties are white-anting each other outside the mediation room, things are in a downward, and probably for the moment fatal, spiral.Confidentiality went long ago, now it's who can win the public relations contest.Here the Writers Guild of America tells us how talks broke down in the writers strike mediation last Friday night in LA and here The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers gives their version...
The elements of a sphincter-tightening mediation presentation
Posted on December 10, 2007The title may be a little strong but How to Build a Mediation Presentation That Will Make an Insurance Adjuster?s Sphincter Tighten is worth a look if you mediate insurance cases.'Insurance adjusters have seen the worst of the worst. They see horrific injuries every day...
'Get a life' or 'Yeah, right on'
Posted on December 08, 2007Great comment from my friend, Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous on my previous post about going along to a Christmas bash last week;"Geoff, the real question here is whether you as mediator should be going to a repeat user's Christmas party at all..."But I can't decide whether it is ridiculously politically correct or if there is an ethical point to be made here...
We are not yet a recognised pruh-fesh-uhn
Posted on December 07, 2007...because, at both client Christmas parties I had the pleasure of attending this week, my name tag read - Geoff Sharp, Barrister...Notwithstanding my only work for each organisation had been multiple mediations during the course of the year.pro·fes·sion [pruh-fesh-uhn] a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science...
Of War and Negotiation #1
Posted on December 05, 2007I know Robert Benjamin has been working on this series for a while now.Of War and Negotiation: Lessons From The Europeans (Part 1) is out now.There's more to come and it's a must read."This series of articles is, in part, inspired by and intended to pay tribute to the power and importance of the emerging European approach to conflict management and mediation practice, that is pragmatic, realistic, and relatively free of ideological trappings...
Mediation providers no longer add value
Posted on December 04, 2007Here is a fascinating paper entitled Mediation Providers No Longer Add ValueIt started life as a debate in 2006 sponsored by MATA but is now reproduced as a very readable think piece and has input from notables like Richard Schiffer, Chair of ADR Group and Elizabeth Birch, founder of ACI...
Money Mediation #2
Posted on December 01, 2007In this second of two posts, I pick up last week's discussion around adversarial mediation and how sometimes, just sometimes, a mediator's reality is that parties with no prior relationship have few joint interests other than reducing transaction costs of getting to trial...
Money Mediation #1
Posted on November 22, 2007In this piece I try to cover a topic in two consecutive blog posts which I would not normally attempt but for an important discussion at the recent LEADR conference in Wellington and continued across the Pacific a couple of weeks later at the IAM Portland gathering of commercial mediators...
Two interesting practice questions
Posted on November 20, 2007Two interesting questions answered by co-chairs Diana Mercer and Robert Edward Lee Wright of the ABA DR Section's Standing Committee on ADR Practice Management, Business and Skills Development;1st Q: Our two children are just starting college and facing high tuition fees...
Apology in Mediation
Posted on November 19, 2007[via indexed][click on the title of this post to read more...]
No is today?s biggest challenge
Posted on November 18, 2007An interesting post over at Slaw, Canada's high profile cooperative law weblog.Mastering the Positive No is a look at William Ury's latest contribution, The Power of a Positive No: How to Say NO and Still Get To YES.[click on the title of this post to read more...
Free Journals
Posted on November 14, 2007FreeFullText provides links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow their online content to be viewed for free.Most publications appear to be for the left brained amongst us. Although I did find Mediators of Inflammation.You may get more out of SAGE who have announced free access until the end of November across all its 460 online journals...
What makes a SuperMed?
Posted on November 12, 2007What makes a mediation super-hero?And who qualifies?Is it technique or style? Ask Ken Cloke and he will say you are the technique.Is it acquired or does it come from within?Is it art or is it a science?Why does she get all the work when he gets none?How come the most unlikely people have superb practices? To meet them outside the mediation room they are too flaky/too egotistical/couldn't listen to their own grandmother without interrupting...
A Neutral's Neural Net
Posted on November 10, 2007If you are an ADR writer or researcher or even teacher - Princeton University?s Visuwords? is a great little free tool for you just launched this week.It's a dictionary. It's a thesaurus. Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts...
DR in Second Life
Posted on November 08, 2007This blog has posted before urging mediators to set up a Second Life mediation practice - even maybe a SL global mediation practice blog.News this week of a Second Life E-Justice Centre including an explanatory video from Bill Warters over at Campus ADR...
Double-Dipping
Posted on November 07, 2007It's always a good week when someone, somewhere asks how come judges can leave the bench for retirement at the mediation table?And it's especially good if you have often wondered out loud (How wrong can you get? and Great on paper, crap at the table) what skills used for judging can possibly complement those needed for mediation...
Get it while it's hot
Posted on November 04, 2007From one of the most generous bloggers out there, Dr Tammy Lenski offers you a free chapter from her soon to be released book - Making Mediation Your Day Job[click on the title of this post to read more...]
A complete moron with a nice personality can be a mediator
Posted on November 04, 2007This ex labor attorney is an idiot, but it's what we are up against."... Mediation is a great job, incidentally. There is no possibility of a malpractice suit. You have no clients. You have virtually no files. You get paid at least $250 an hour. You have very low expenses, because you don't need a staff...
DR Works In Progress
Posted on November 03, 2007Marquette University Law School has just wrapped up its interesting sounding Dispute Resolution Works in Progress Conference.The Conference was a gathering of scholars teaching and researching in dispute resolution.The list of papers is an eclectic offering and this one in particular caught my eye; How To Behave In a China Shop: New Forms of Advocacy In Mediation by Prof Jonathan Hyman, Rutgers Law SchoolProf Hyman observes that "Lawyers with their adversarial methods may become proverbial bulls in mediation?s china shops...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-28 at 21:13PM
Ten months later, Fed must reveal names of emergency lending recipients #FOIA
On 08-25 at 19:02PM
Squeaky Fromme, would-be Ford assassin and Manson devotee, released from prison
On 08-14 at 15:19PM
Likely unintended consequence of cash-for-clunkers stimulus is dampening of 2010 spending
On 08-14 at 14:34PM
Palm seeks to halt Palm Pre Android theme on copyright and trademark ground
On 08-12 at 17:30PM
Congressional investigation demonstrates Karl Rove lied about his active role in US attorney's firing
On 08-12 at 16:20PM
Family of New York City swine flu victim to sue city for failure to secure school #nyc #swineflu
On 08-12 at 12:59PM
Real Network's DVD copying software deemed to break DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions
On 08-12 at 12:57PM
Prepaid funeral operators indicted for $100 Million fraud
On 08-12 at 12:53PM
NY Jets join Cincinnati, Dallas, Green Bay, Houston & Seattle #NFL teams offering branded state lottery games
On 08-12 at 12:43PM
Are you the author of this blog? Adding USLaw.com to your Blogroll increases relevance. You qualify to display a USLaw Network badge.
Suggest changes to this blog's description or nominate another for inclusion. Register for updates.
 |
|
Contact Us | About Us | Celebrity Law Blog |
Our Partners | Disclaimer
| Law Blog Directory
| Law Jobs
| Law Tweets
| GoDaddy Hosting
All original material © 1999-2009 by USLaw.com. |