Arbitration & Mediation

Live blogging and video from Dispute Systems Design Symposium at Harvard

Posted on March 07, 2008
Michael 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
My 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, 2008
Via 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...

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Mediation - a 'dishonest kind of process'

Posted on March 02, 2008
In 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, 2008
This 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, 2008
Over 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Dr 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
For 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, 2008
Over 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, 2008
Every 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
As 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, 2008
Now 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
This 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
Many 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, 2008
Did 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, 2008
It 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, 2008
OMG! 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, 2008
Just 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
If 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, 2008
As 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Forget 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...

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