Tag: Commercial Mediation

  • Evaluate the trust and goodwill that supported your original agreements.

    Task #15: How did you evaluate the trust and goodwill that supported your original agreements? The resolution of a dispute does not just occur on the day of the mediation.   Each participant to mediation needs to prepare their own strategy for negotiation in the settlement.  Based on my experience as a mediator, these are a…

  • I’ve been in mediation and there was so much conflict that nothing got done. Wouldn’t I be better off just going to court?

    I’ve been in mediation and there was so much conflict that nothing got done. Wouldn’t I be better off just going to court? This is an option, but you may not resolve your dispute. Mediation is not about coming to the table as friends to avoid conflict and confrontation, as many professionals would have you…

  • With the right tools we can handle more conflict.

    Mediation is conflict at its best.   All of the tools, I, as a mediator brings to the mediation help manage the conflict to a great resolution. Management expert Margaret Heffernan postulated five counterintuitive guidelines learned in her years running businesses and organizations in her TEDGlobal 2012 presentation. Her insight has great implications for successful mediations. …

  • Starlings v Blueberries – Last Friday’s ABA Representation in Mediation Competition

    Starlings v Blueberries – Last Friday’s ABA Representation in Mediation Competition Last Friday I participated in the ABA Representation in Mediation Competition.  I was one of the judges of the competition.  It was a two day event held at Berkeley Law in Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley Campus. As Alternative Dispute Resolution…

  • What do I do in a mediation?

    As your mediator, I am neither your friend nor foe.   All too many come into the mediation anticipating that they will “win over” me or that I will advocate on their behalf. Often when this fails to happen, and it should fail to happen, they treat the mediator as an adversary. This does not help…

  • In Conflict, it is never a bad idea to have a cooling off period

    Margaret Heffernan final counterintuitive idea to encourage healthy conflict would be after a decision is made, declare a cooling off period.    Her suggestion is to ask everyone to go home and think about the decision on their own as well as discuss it with their associates.  Then come back after a prescribed amount of time…

  • Why I joined the ADR section – article

    Here is the article that was just published in the Contra Costa Lawyer, Volume 26, Number 1- January 2013.  I am starting an exciting years as Chair of the ADR Section of the Contra Costa Bar Association. Meet Your Section Leaders – Alternative Dispute Resolution How has section membership benefited your practice? I joined the…

  • Imagine you cannot do what you all want to do.

    Imagine Imagine you cannot do what you all want to do.  Management expert Margaret Heffernan postulated this counterintuitive idea learned in her years running businesses and organizations in her TEDGlobal 2012 presentation. In other words, think about what you would do if you could fire someone, if you could change the timetable, or if you…

  • Task #14: Looking at the previous two questions, where do you think THEIR perspective differs from your own.

    Task #14: Looking at the previous two questions, where do you think THEIR perspective differs from your own. Looking at the previous two questions below, where do you think THEIR perspective differs from your own. Task #12:  What important understanding did you think you had when you originally got involved together? Task #13: In a…

  • Listen for what is NOT being said.

    Listen for what is NOT being said Listen for what is NOT being said is counter-intuitive, but very important.  You need to find the elephant in the room.   Listening for what is not being said is the primary job of the mediator.  What we do is listen, clarify and re-frame.  We may notice trends that…