The last mediation I conducted in 2021 did not result in a resolution. There were a number of reasons why which I could not quite put my finger on. But over the holidays I read some books on negotiation which helped to crystallize my thinking. One of the books, Bargaining [Read More]
The end of the semester is drawing near in my online employment mediation dispute class. The theme of the last discussion board is reflective: what three things has each student learned from or skills developed or improved upon in this course. There is a saying to the effect that as [Read More]
One of the most important things a mediator must do- if not the most important- is to build trust and rapport with the parties. In pre-Covid days, this was a bit easier; the mediator could sit face to face with each party and schmooze. Now, we are reduced to being [Read More]
One value in being a mediator is learning how to think outside the box: to brainstorm. I learned long ago that any problem usually has more than one resolution. So… this is all about Buddy – part 2. Needless to say, Buddy took awhile to recover from the anti-anxiety medicine [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]
School has started. More specifically, I have returned as a lecturer in law at USC’s Gould School of Law teaching ADR Ethics. And, I must say, the first class was very lively. The topic was negotiation ethics. And, at one point, I noted that as a mediator, the most important [Read More]
The one thing I love about being a mediator is that it constantly brings new challenges and new insights into people. A recent mediation is no exception. In that mediation, for the first time, defense counsel advised that her client wished to proceed to trial because it believed that the [Read More]
Recently, I wrote a blog about an almost mediation that was cancelled at the last moment because the attorney representing one party was not going to be present but sending a substitute instead. While the theme of that blog was that the parties lost a valuable opportunity to settle, there [Read More]
