In my practice of mediation, I never gave this question any thought! But I should. I just finished reading a book entitled Quiet by Susan Cain (Broadway Books, New York 2013) and realized that our answer to this question greatly impacts absolutely everything we do in life (including negotiating disputes!) [Read More]
Our recent book club discussion featured Split the Pie: A Radical New Way to Negotiate by Barry Nalebuff (HarperCollins, New York 2022). While I understand the author’s concept, I am not sure if I am able to implement it as a mediator. In the simplest of terms, in a two-party [Read More]
A recent survey ( NADN-2022-SurveyOfLitigators-ViewsOnODR[64656] ) conducted by the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals found that prior to the pandemic and lock down in March 2020 only about 2% of litigation attorneys had ever attended a mediation or arbitration using a video conference platform. But thanks to the pandemic, as [Read More]
In 1978, Kenny Rogers wrote a song entitled “The Gambler”. Part of the lyrics include the memorable lines, You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away And know when to run You never count your money When you're sittin' at [Read More]
During a mediation, one or more parties will often bring up the topic of managing expectations- usually in reference to the other party. The discussion will be to the effect that I, as the mediator, should go into the other conference room and have a “candid” conversation with that party [Read More]
The Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON) blog posted an article about deception in negotiations. Entitled, “Ethics In Negotiation: How tthe Articleo Deal with Deception at the Bargaining Table” by Pon Staff (August 9, 2022), the article provides four examples of situations in which one could be tempted to use “deception” [Read More]
Even though my students are training to become mediators, I raise the important issue of negotiation style with them; after all, as mediators, they are, in effect, negotiating with the parties. No doubt, these students did not give much thought to how their style of negotiating impacts their role as [Read More]
The American Bar Association recently posted an article in its ABA Weekly Newsletter (May 27,2022) about a patient signing an agreement with a hospital acknowledging that she will be charged $1300 for surgery but then being billed about $230,000. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the signed agreement prevailed; because [Read More]
