Featured Blogs Section
Featured Blog Posts
How Can We Fix Legal System Failures to Properly Handle Sexual Offenses?
Over the past year, we have witnessed growing evidence of the massive failures of our legal system to deal properly with a rampant system in which powerful men sexually dominate others, especially women.
The Next Level of Impartiality
All mediators understand that we’re supposed to be impartial. Our ideas about what that means fall on a continuum.
Powerful Words on Inclusion and the Impact to Follow
In a recent article, Kim Taylor, senior vice president and chief legal and operating officer at JAMS, discusses the importance of inclusion and diversity as it relates to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and specifically arbitration.
Ethical Fading
Typically, before I discuss the topic of mediation ethics with my students, I delve into the topic of “negotiation ethics” in general.
Why Wouldn’t You Work Together to Solve Your Legal Problem?
Collaborative. In the business world, in medicine, high technology, healthcare, engineering, education, aeronautics, manufacturing, public service, first responders, military defense, invention – in just about every field of endeavor, we see this word popping up over and over again.
Blind Justice: Can Individuals Be Bound to Arbitration Clauses They Can’t Read?
The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston recently declined to enforce an arbitration clause in the Container Store’s loyalty program against blind customers.
The Type of Problem That Makes Conflict Resolution Harder
Gravity problems make conflict resolution more difficult because they sidetrack us from actionable problems.
Concerns on the New Singapore Convention
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has announced agreement on a “United Nations Agreement on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation.”
Call for Community Mediation Surveys
This is a survey request to develop and implement a two-phase data collection process in order to determine the present state of community mediation.
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen!
I just finished conducting a mediation (lemon law) which did not settle. And I think I know the reason.
How to Break Free of An Addictive Relationship
You can choose whether to continue with an addictive relationship.
My Favorite Resource Featuring Catherine Geyer
Our series, My Favorite Resource, features interviews with our court ADR friends across the country to learn about their favorite resource.
Why Do I Want You to Stay in the Room?
I want to say a word about neutrality, which is a very important concept in mediation.
Reality-Testing Questions for Real Life and Simulations – and Ideas for Stone Soup Assignments
Litigation offers many potential benefits. It can help people solve difficult problems, make relationships and institutions function properly, and promote justice.
Never Make Assumptions About Colleagues
Whenever it comes to other people, our prejudices – and a pretty basic lack of knowledge – are what tend to rule.
Conflict Assumptions
When we are in conflict with another it is often the case that we make assumptions about her or him.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T — Find Out What it Means to Me!
I write this just days after the death of the infamous Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
Mandatory Pre-institution Commercial Mediation in India
This article looks at mandatory pre-institution commercial mediation in India and asks is this a premature step in the right direction?
The Science of Negotiation
Follow, if you will, the mediation of a sexual harassment claim to learn the basic principles of mediation.
Generating Multiple Options!
Attending a mediation requires making difficult decisions.
If I Had To Do It Again…
Many of us revisit conflicts and other interactions in our heads – and sometimes many times – wishing we had the opportunity to do it again.
Mediation Summit in Changsha, China
This historic Chinese summit discussed discussed implications of the Belt/Road Initiative, announced five years ago.
Affirming the Good in Workplace Conflict—the positive role of affirmations
One of the tools I use frequently with conflict coaching clients, as well as for myself, is affirmations.
What Do Litigants Really Want?
This discusses the article "Inside the Mind of the Client."
3 Ways to Turn Adversaries into Problem-Solving Partners
Most people don’t want to be wrangled into doing something you want but they don’t. Here are three ways to turn them into your problem-solving partners and dissolve resistance.
Stop Giving Others Insult Power
Do you know people who get upset and insulted easily?
How Avoidance Can Help You with Workplace Conflict
It sounds counter intuitive, but Inaction or avoidance can be a viable way of dealing with workplace conflict.
Paying Forward Conflict Lessons
"Thank you for listening to me and my side of our dispute and for disagreeing with me in the gracious way you did--" I learned so much from those words.
How to Express a Concern Without Making Things Worse
When I ask clients why they let a problem go on for so long before addressing it, a common reply is, “I was afraid I’d create more conflict by raising it.”
10 things to think about BEFORE you decide whether to litigate and which lawyer to hire
When you have been wronged, all kinds of emotions rush into your head, direct from your heart, without checking with your mind first.
Evaluative Mediation---Curriculum modules
This article discusses topics that often come up in Evaluative Mediation trainings: A selected number can be included in a course on evaluative mediation, and exercises used to assist “learning” of those topics.
Why Labelling and Group Identity Matters in Conflict?
Labels are increasingly being used to leverage support for group identities and ideals.
Revenge as a Learning Experience
No doubt, at some point in your life, you have wanted to take revenge against someone who “did you wrong”.
Feel The Earth Move – Shifts In The International Dispute Resolution Landscape
Two common themes emerged from a recent panel discussion. First, the idea of a growing ecosystem; and, second, a changing culture.