On Negotiation, Extremism and History - Book Review of Brown's and Marriott's ADR Principles and Practice (5/07/12) Robert Benjamin The conflict terrain of the last 30 years is an important backdrop to a complete appreciation of ADR Principles and Practice, Third Edition, by Henry Brown and Arthur Marriott, published by Sweet and Maxwell in 2011. The authors, both from the United Kingdom, demonstrate an appreciation for the vagaries of history and gritty realities of mediation, arbitration and conflict management practice garnered from many years of life and professional experience.
Book Review: Conflict and Charisma (4/02/12) Jeff Thompson A book review of the new book on Charisma by Olivia Fox Cabane. If you are interested in increasing your ability to be charismatic in your conflict resolution work, this book will give you direct skills to use in a style that will have you believing (and practicing) starting with the introduction and increasing with each chapter.
Book Review: How Leading Lawyers Think (9/26/11) Robert Creo, Monique McKay “How Leading Lawyers Think” by Randall Kiser is a rare inside look at decision making, mediation, negotiation and case evaluation from the perspectives of leading attorneys who have successfully taken thousands of cases to trial. Their collective experience provides engaging, insightful perspectives about how cases are built from the initial client meeting, through settlement negotiations and the factors that impact the presentation at trial. 2 Comments
Mediation Ethics Book Review (8/08/11) Jan Frankel Schau Mediators are uniquely capable of seeing contradictory versions of the same story and valuing at least two perspectives in a given dispute. We are able to juggle varying competing moral values and daily struggle with achieving the balance between right and just, practical and plausible, peace and conflict and black, white and gray. 1 Comment
An Unabashedly Values-Based Mediation Practice (6/27/11) Arnold W. Zeman This is a review of the book: Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation of Transformative mediation: a sourcebook - resources for conflict intervention practitioners and programs. Its publication the the Institute and ACR is a noteworthy event in the history of both organizations.
Discernment (12/06/10) Jeff Thompson Discernment (Lantern Books), the title of Buddhist nun Venerable Yifa’s new book, provides the mediator and other ADR practitioners a valuable tool to add to their ‘ADR toolbox’.
International and Comparative Mediation: Legal Perspectives (Book Review) (9/27/10) Michael Leathes What marks this book out as exceptional, valuable, inspiring and even myth-busting is its contemporary focus on the legal and regulatory issues surrounding the practice of mediation - in civil and common law jurisdictions and also at a transnational level - and the engaging way it is written and presented.
A Review Of Lawyers As Peacemakers: Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law (7/26/10) Brooke Goldfarb According to Ms. Wright, there is a rapidly expanding like-minded legal community out there, actively practicing the concepts of peacemaking, problem-solving and conflict-healing. Ms. Wright has been instrumental in telling these lawyers’ stories and bringing them together. Over a dozen years of her findings are culminated in her new ABA publication, Lawyers as Peacemakers: Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law. 2 Comments
The Road Less Traveled: A Review Of J. Kim Wright’s Lawyers As Peacemakers: Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law (7/12/10) Diane J. Levin The idealism that drew many of us to law school endures, evident in the work of lawyers who have reclaimed their role as compassionate defender of justice, skilled negotiator brokering peace, or principled leader wielding influence. These lawyers have their champions and spokespersons, notable among them J. Kim Wright, publisher and editor of CuttingEdgeLaw.com, an online community and magazine for lawyers. Wright today coaches and inspires lawyers who seek to bring an ethos of care, mutual respect, and humanity to the way they practice law.
Chapter One of Lawyers as Peacemakers, Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law (7/12/10) J. Kim Wright This is an Chapter One of Lawyers as Peacemakers, Practicing Holistic, Problem-Solving Law by J. Kim Wright. A comprehensive overview of a movement, the book explores many peacemaking approaches including restorative justice, therapeutic jurisprudence, collaborative law and, of course, mediation, plus holistic problem-solving approaches like drug treatment courts. In this excerpt, Wright explores the paradigm shift that is occurring in law.
Mediation Representation: Advocating As A Problem-Solver In Any Country Or Culture (Book Review) (5/03/10) Michael Leathes Gladiatorial attorneys the world over are probably the single greatest barrier to a successful negotiated outcome. By not consciously adapting their style from the "I Gonna Win/You Gonna Lose" approach characterized by litigation and arbitration, attorneys representing clients in mediation can seriously impede, miss and even block the greater benefits for their clients potentially available from a negotiated outcome. 1 Comment
Book Review Of Collaborative Divorce Handbook: Helping Families Without Going To Court (9/25/09) Nan Burnett Forrest S. “Woody” Mosten has been a visionary trailblazer for over 30 years. The first time I heard Woody speak was in Denver in the late 1990’s. The topic was Unbundling Legal Services. I remember thinking, boy is he courageous! I contemplated the resistance he would surely face from the rest of legal community. When you get to know Woody, you quickly discover that he is a champion of the ones who have no voice, the client drowning in conflict; a change agent on a very large scale.
A Practical Bibliography of Books for the Mediation Practitioner (8/16/09) Barbara Brown Early in my education and training as a mediator I started compiling a list of the books on mediation I wanted to read. Woody Mosten started me out with a list of must-reads. I bought those books, and they all had bibliographies. So I added the books in those bibliographies to my list. And so it went. I became enthralled by the sheer number of books on mediation and conflict resolution and decided that it might be helpful to other practitioners as well to have these works pulled together in one bibliography with consistent citation format. Here is the result. 5 Comments
112 Ways to Succeed in Any Negotiation or Mediation (Book Review) (8/03/09) Jeff Thompson Steve Mehta, already an accomplished mediator and ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) blogger, has decided to take on the title of author for his latest project. 112 Ways to Succeed in Any Negotiation or Mediation is the title of his debut as an author and to those who know him, it comes as no surprise that Mehta has provided us with a valuable resource. 1 Comment
Challenging Conflict, Mediation Through Understanding (Book Review) (7/13/09) Adam Berner Even for the most avid of readers, there is just so much written out there that it is overwhelming to zero in on must-read books. This is especially true as our field expands. So, in case the accolades from leaders in our mediation field do not suffice, including Professors Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Bernie Mayer and Robert Mnookin, let me say that Challenging Conflict, Mediation Through Understanding, published in cooperation with the Harvard Program on Negotiation, is a must-read for any mediator serious about deepening his or her mediation skills and seeking greater opportunities to help parties in conflict. 1 Comment
Book Review: Staying With Conflict: A Strategic Approach To Ongoing Disputes (6/01/09) Jan Frankel Schau In his newest book, Staying with Conflict, Bernie Mayer urges “conflict professionals” to think of ourselves as specialists who are retained as allies in assisting disputants to develop a constructive approach to engaging in enduring conflict, which he contends is both healthy and omnipresent. A word of caution to colleagues who are engaged exclusively in mediating the litigated case: the book, if taken to heart, may call into question your/our own self-limiting roles.
Book Review: The Healthy Divorce: Keys to Ending Your Marriage While Preserving your Emotional Well-Being (4/10/09) Joan B. Kelly This book is an updated version of Between Love and Hate: A Guide to Civilized Divorce, originally published in 1992. At that time, I was troubled by the continuing portrayal by the American media and movies of American divorces as destructive, poisonous, hateful processes and behaviors reminiscent of War of the Rose, and widely recommended Lois Gold’s book to mental health and legal professionals and separating partners and spouses to educate them about a better way to separate and divorce. 1 Comment
Darwin As Conflict Theorist (3/16/09) Luis Miguel Diaz Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82) has reemerged on the 200th anniversary of his birth as conflict theorist.We can learn so much from Darwin since his authority as conflict theorist is insuperable; the core of his work was theorizing about conflicting forces of nature. To follow are Darwin’s thoughts as recorded in his own words.
BOOK REVIEW: Staying With Conflict: A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes by Bernard Mayer (Jossey-Bass) (2/17/09) Daniel Rainey Bernie Mayer has an uncommon ability to draw an argument in a few strokes that makes figures in our field pop out in sharp relief. He did it with Beyond Neutrality, generating a thoughtful and wide-spread discussion about the essential posture of the intervener. He’s done it again with Staying with Conflict, this time bringing into sharp focus the question of whether the goal of “resolution,” a part of the name that we most often use to label our field, is in fact an impediment to effective assistance to parties in conflict. 2 Comments
Review of Eye of the Storm Leadership by Peter Adler (4/21/08) John Sautelle If you want a thought-provoking, engaging and at times inspirational read then this is the book for you! As it turns out, this book is not about leadership generally – it focuses specifically on leadership in the context of conflict.
Book Reviews of The Handbook of Conflict Resolution and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (1/14/08) Josefina Rendon The titles of these two books, Handbook of Conflict Resolution (Conflict Handbook) and Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Dispute Handbook), are so similar that professionals and students in the field(s) may confuse them if not comparing them side by side. This may be due to the fact that both are published by the same publisher, or perhaps it is that the words “conflict” and “dispute” in each of their titles are so similar that they are often used interchangeably.
