Arbitration & Mediation

Professor Kevin Clements

Posted on May 23, 2009
A 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, 2009
Go 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, 2009
After 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, 2009
The 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...

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ABA ethics opinion sets out limits on mediator disclosure

Posted on May 15, 2009
Well 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, 2009
Once 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, 2009
If 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, 2009
Overheard 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, 2009
UK'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, 2009
Yes! 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, 2009
Leading 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, 2009
I'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, 2009
You 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Then 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, 2009
See 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, 2009
Having 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, 2009
Having 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, 2009
With 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, 2009
I 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, 2009
Settle 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, 2009
2009 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
I 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, 2009
Want 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, 2009
This 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, 2009
Robin 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, 2009
Prof 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...

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