Almost one year ago, life for most of us changed irrevocably: we went from commuting to and from our offices and fighting traffic to commuting between our bedrooms and “home” offices and fighting over internet access. We went into “lockdown.” And with it, we all took an accelerated course on [Read More]
Mediations have a lot to do with trust. Not only must each party have some trust in the mediator but also should have at least a minimal degree of trust in the other side. If everyone completely distrusts everyone else in the mediation, there will be no resolution. In fact, [Read More]
Life is full of coincidences. Recently, I agreed to teach a class on cross-cultural negotiation. A few days later, the Harvard Negotiation Project published an article entitled, “Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can I Improve My Cross- Cultural Negotiation Skills?” (February 16, 2021). ("Negotiation Coach") Besides my academic teaching interest in [Read More]
Last week’s mail brought a Los Angeles County Superior Court Jury Summons by which I am ordered to be available in March for civil jury trials at the main civil courthouse in downtown Los Angeles ….in the middle of a pandemic. Needless to say, due to the surge of the [Read More]
I have had several mediations lately in which the approach of the parties clashed. The clash can be labelled as the one-shot player vs the repeat player.(See: Is That All There Is? The Problem in Court-Oriented Mediation by Leonard L. Riskin and Nancy Walsh, 15 George Mason Law Review ___ [Read More]
Let us suppose a hypothetical: you are given notice of the date and time of a court ordered mediation but choose not to attend. Those who do attend reach an agreement and sign a settlement agreement. Is that agreement binding on you although you did not attend the mediation? While [Read More]
Teaching mediation ethics has its good points and bad points. The good is that I have been required to learn the subject matter in depth; the bad is that oftentimes in an actual mediation I am cognizant (or more so) of ethical issues which may escape the (full?) attention of [Read More]
Recently, I attended another wonderful Zoom presentation sponsored by Will Work For Food (https://www.willworkforfood.news/) entitled “Apology, Forgiveness and Reconciliation” by Professor Emeritus Peter Robinson who taught for many years at the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University.(He was also a managing director of the Straus program for many [Read More]
