Arbitration & Mediation

Too much information?

Posted on May 21, 2008
More 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, 2008
Sir 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, 2008
Just 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, 2008
Wednesday, 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...]

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Two new videos on negotiation

Posted on May 12, 2008
1. 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, 2008
Washington 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, 2008
My 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
Bob 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, 2008
Back 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, 2008
Via 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, 2008
Massachusetts 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
Congratulations 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, 2008
It'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, 2008
Australian 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, 2008
Alltop 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, 2008
Robert 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, 2008
Message 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
MTI'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, 2008
I 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, 2008
Brussels, 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, 2008
Florida'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, 2008
A 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, 2008
Here'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, 2008
Michael 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, 2008
Los 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, 2008
Last 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, 2008
Michael 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...

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