Preparing for Mediation

Which door to choose? It only takes 40 hours of training to become a mediator, and if you’re a judge, you get a bye.  Mediators have different skill sets and varying degrees of conflict resolution training.  Think about your case, your client, opposing counsel and the other side’s client before you select a mediator. Mediator […]

I was certain for at least 50 years that there were 9 planets and the farthest one away was Pluto. Even now, I choose to believe that there are still 9 planets and the farthest one away is Pluto. It’s hard to give up beliefs formed in childhood. In mediations, I see parties full of […]

If you think I’m talking about your clients’ emotions, you’d be half right.  It’s not just our clients’ emotions we have to deal with; it’s ours as well. Think back to your last several mediations.  How many times were you personally frustrated and upset by a proposal from the other side?  How many times have […]

I moved to San Francisco in the late ‘70’s, about the time Joe Montana and Bill Walsh got here.  Of course I became a big ’49er fan.  Bill Walsh, the legendary ’49er coach, prepared for game day by scripting the first 25 plays.  The team practiced these during the week.  On game day, Walsh might […]

Negotiation preparation includes thinking about differences in a different way:  Differences are good!  They can be traded.  They rarely have equal value to both sides.  An issue might have less priority to you and a greater priority to the other side.  Consider logrolling to exploit your differences. As lawyers, most of us think of the […]

Most lawyers tend to think of the settlement of a lawsuit as cutting up a fixed pie.  The bigger piece my client gets, the smaller piece your client gets, and vice versa.  In game theory, this is known as a zero sum game.  If the settlement is $1.5 Million, where my client paid $1.5 M […]