Arbitration & Mediation

Dealing with "Jerks" - Tit for Tat in an Email World

Posted on May 18, 2009
I'm re-posting below an article published in both the Los Angeles and the San Francisco Daily Journals (the local legal rags) about the dangers inherent in email communication.  I do so because I had several complaints about the use of abusive email by in-house counsel last week at my negotiation training as well as in my twitter network from attorneys exasperated with combative emailers who refuse to take telephone calls (see post about conflict avoidance here) My advice?  Use the tried and true tit-for-tat strategy:  retaliate for uncooperative conduct and be quick to forgive as soon as your bargaining partners bring themselves back into line...

Negotiating the Future: President Obama's Notre Dame Commencement Speech

Posted on May 17, 2009
Here's part I of the Obama Notre Dame Speech YouTube Video (sorry about the intro footage). Here's the MSNBC Video: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy   OBAMA: Thank you, Father Jenkins for that generous introduction...

Do Interest-Based Negotiation and Mediation "Trade Justice for Harmony"?

Posted on May 17, 2009
Among the most frequently asked questions at my negotiation trainings are these: how do you negotiate with a sociopath? how do you negotiate with people who are: evil dishonest; or 100% irremediable jerks how do you negotiate when you are powerless (or simply weak) Whenever someone asks me about negotiating evil, I think of Ken Cloke's brilliant book Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice and Terrorism – How Mediators Can Help Save the Planet (my review of that book here)...

Negotiating Success: Social Networking for Lawyers

Posted on May 17, 2009
Internet defamation attorney Adrianos Fachetti; entertainment attorney Gordon Firemark; class action attorney H. Scott Leviant;  Barger & Wolen Marketing Director Heather Milligan and I will be presenting Social Networking for Lawyers: A Roadmap to Success Session 1 (9:15-10:30) at the Second Annual LACBA Solo and Small Firm Convention on June 25, 2009...

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More on Bargaining from a Position of Weakness

Posted on May 16, 2009
Because I've been talking to a lot of people with services or products to sell in what they perceive to be a buyer's market, I've been giving a fair amount of advice about negotiating from a position of weakness.  That being the case, I'm just jotting down a few random thoughts on the matter...

Want to Appear in My Blog Roll? Negotiating the Blawgosphere

Posted on May 14, 2009
Dear New Blogger, I'm happy whenever new legal bloggers contact me to ask whether I'll add them to my blog roll because it gives me an opportunity to be of service to the Blawgosphere that has done so much for me.  Because I keep writing this same responsive e-mail from scratch however, I'm going to finally post my most recent free advice so that I can simply link to it next time...

Negotiating Conflict in a Business Setting with a Word for Women and a Caution on Negotiation Ethics

Posted on May 13, 2009
Negotiation And The Anatomy Of Conflict View more presentations from Victoria Pynchon.

Never Negotiate with Your Creditors Out of Fear, But Never Fear to Negotiate Lower Interest Rates, Waiver of Interest, Late Fees, Etc.

Posted on May 08, 2009
O.K., times are tough.  And it takes no small amount of courage to face the financial disaster that credit cards can cause to even those who feel themselves to be the most sober of financial citizens.  Then it takes real courage to pick up a telephone and make a request to a disembodied and not-likely-friendly voice to ask for help bailing you out of a mess you can barely believe you find yourself in...

Negotiating Against the Grain of Gender

Posted on May 07, 2009
Yesterday, we talked about the different negotiation styles of men and women.  Today, we're going to explore how men can benefit from learning women-speak and women can benefit from learning man-talk.  All of the data relied upon and excerpted below is from Gender Benders by Dianna Booher at the Negotiation Expert's blog...

More Lee Jay Berman on the American Institute of Mediation

Posted on May 06, 2009
Here are the final clips of my interview with mediator and mediation educator, Lee Jay Berman, about helping disputants ask the questions necessary to resolve their conflict and how the new American Institute of Mediation will help the experienced mediator improve his/her existing game and, just as importantly, build the business that allows him/her to practice the profession at the highest level...

Negotiation 101: Gender War or Gender Peace and Prosperity?

Posted on May 06, 2009
Although I am indisputably a "woman lawyer," I have never thought of myself in those terms.  I'm a lawyer.  And I'm a woman.  I'm also a writer, a step-mother, a wife, a daughter, a river rafter, and an aficionado of squash (the game, not the vegetable), photography, literature, and theater...

Negotiating the Settlement of a Personal Injury Action? Here are Some Helpful Statistics

Posted on May 05, 2009
My statistics page tells me that lawyers are not the only people searching for information about likely outcomes at trial.  The clients land here too.  For their benefit, here's a report from the Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog, penned last Spring but likely to reflect current trends as well...

Surprise Announcement of the Week: Joint Sessions Put Parties into a Collaborative, Even Generous, Mood

Posted on May 05, 2009
Whether parties to litigation should engage in joint session bargaining at some point in the process is a hot topic at the moment because joint session practice here is nearly a dead letter in one of the most active and sophisticated mediation markets - Los Angeles California...

Negotiation 101: Putting "No" into a "Yes Sandwich"

Posted on May 05, 2009
With so much emphasis placed on Getting to Yes in negotiations, we often forget the power - indeed the necessity -- of saying "no." Think of yourself in that iconic bargaining environment, the foreign bazaar.  No matter how much of a buyers' market you're in, at some point, the seller must say no -- otherwise you'd just bargain him down to zero, or perhaps negotiate a deal in which he pays you to take the merchandise off his hands...

Master Mediator Lee Jay Berman and the American Institute of Mediation

Posted on May 03, 2009
Here's part one of a multi-part interview with Lee Jay Berman of the new American Institute for Mediation.  Lee Jay is one of the foremost mediation trainers in the United States.  Why bother with yet another mediation institute?  For the same reason I spent the vast majority of time at the recent ABA Dispute Resolution conference talking to attendees rather than attending seminars...

Are We Post-Racial Yet? Can we Be? Do We Want to Be?

Posted on May 01, 2009
Cheryl Harris, Professor of Critical Race Studies at UCLA Law School talks about color-blindness as the bus we get on to take the journey to a post-racial society. What is the history of post-racial politics in America. What is its present posture and what do we have to learn from our history and our response to the elephant in the room? The first of a series from the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference in New York City last month...

The May 2009 Carnival of Trust

Posted on May 01, 2009
If trust had a hologram for all of its forms -- honor, commitment, credulity, betrayal, reliance, and, confidence (harboring the "con" that playwright David Mamet has made his life's work) - that hologram would surely include images of the American Legal System...

50 Ways to Break an Impasse: Sam Imperati at the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference

Posted on April 30, 2009
I'm providing you with just a few clips from mediator Sam Imperati's excellent presentation at the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference in New York City recently.  Below are a few of Sam's mediation advocacy tips.  You can find all of them at his website here...

Developing Your Business Without Spending a Dime

Posted on April 29, 2009
A few days ago, in the wake of my social media for mediators presentation, I pulled out this old hand-out that mediator and USC Mediation Clinic Professor and Director Lisa Klerman used for a "write your way to success" seminar at the Southern California Mediation Association a couple of years ago...

The Question is Not WHETHER But HOW MUCH Your Mediator is Deceiving You

Posted on April 29, 2009
I spent the day at an advanced mediation training session at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles where I serve as a settlement officer. I came away troubled by the wide array of responses to questions concerning the mediator's "right" or "desire" or "need" to use deception in separate caucus mediation - the primary form mediation takes in Southern California litigated cases...

Neutrals Richard DeWitt and Jerome Landau Talk About Lawyers as Community Leaders

Posted on April 25, 2009
Richard DeWitt is a member of the American Arbitration Association's National Roster of Neutrals serving on its large, complex case panel, its commercial, employment and technology panels and its panel of Mediators. He is also a Member of the FINRA Dispute Resolution Board of Arbitrators and serves on the National Arbitration Forum's Panel of Neutrals and the CDRS Panel of Neutrals...

One thousand non-billable hours a year to build a mediation practice

Posted on April 25, 2009
 With many apologies for the incomprehensible blurriness of this interview with Woody Mosten conducted in the noisy exhibitor ballroom at the NYC Sheraton Hotel during last week's ABA Dispute Resolution Conference, I nevertheless provide the interview because of the importance of Woody's message...

An Interview with the Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Law School Dispute Resolution Journal

Posted on April 24, 2009
Jordan Wallerstein is the next year's Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Law School's Journal of Conflict Resolution. Jordan talks about his interest in dispute resolution; the challenges faced by his generation of lawyers; and, the benefits of attending Cardozo Law School in New York City...

Victoria Pynchon Now Available on AAA's Non-Binding Dispute Resolution Services Panel for Businesses and Consumers

Posted on April 24, 2009
The American Arbitration Association announces a new set of dispute resolution services for businesses and consumers, including new panel members of which I am one. Mediation and non-binding arbitration are processes that offer parties opportunities to settle their disputes...

Mediation as Sales and Niche Mediation Practice with Jim Melamed of Mediate.com

Posted on April 23, 2009
I traveled to the ABA DRS conference in New York City last week with my new video camera.  I apologize for my lack of skill with it and with Mac's iMovie.  I have more of Jim on tape and will provide it to you as soon as I learn where it disappeared to when I hit the wrong button on iMovie...

Negotiating the Marketplace with Social Media

Posted on April 22, 2009
Social Media for Neutrals View more presentations from Victoria Pynchon.

Negotiating Peace at the ABA DRS Conference: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Posted on April 20, 2009
The most stunning presentation at the recent ABA DRS conference, about which I will write much more very very soon. For the web site, click here!  

Separating the People from the Problem at the ABA DRS Conference

Posted on April 17, 2009
The law school professor asked for a show of hands. "How many lawyers are in the room?" There was something about the way he shook his head, just slightly, from side to side, that communicated "too many lawyers," followed by a sigh that I read as  "I'm still going to smack them upside the head...

Negotiating Reconciliation, Amends and Forgiveness in Burundi

Posted on April 13, 2009
Whenever I read about restorative justice (my paper on the topic here) I am somewhat ashamed that I cannot put aside my own grievances when others resolve harms of such major magnitudes such as the murder of children and genocide.  I am reminded of this today because of Paul and Rebecca Mosley's blog on the work they are doing in Burundi...

Negotiating the 21st Century: Blawg Review #207 at Jordan Furlong's Law 21

Posted on April 13, 2009
It's law week in Canada and the brilliantly prolific Jordan Furlong at Law21 celebrates justice with Blawg Review #207:  All the News that Fits, helpfully including the following outline for his comprehensive review of the best posts in last week's Blawgosphere...

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