Arbitration & Mediation

A Cheap Shot

Posted on December 02, 2008
A 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, 2008
Aggressive 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, 2008
Quick! 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, 2008
I 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...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

More Harvard Treasures

Posted on November 25, 2008
Well, 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, 2008
Last 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, 2008
James 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, 2008
ADR 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, 2008
Well, 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, 2008
Well! 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Chosen 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, 2008
Sometimes, 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
An 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, 2008
David 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, 2008
Over 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, 2008
Two 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, 2008
This 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, 2008
So 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
This 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, 2008
Leaving 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, 2008
Okay, 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
If 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, 2008
If 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, 2008
Blawg 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, 2008
Well, 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?)...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.