Part 1 of this post touched on rumblings for more transparency in arbitration. But there is more than the distant sound of thunder, and it’s coming closer. As arbitration and mediation are both highly competitive and fragmented fields, it is hard for providers to act collectively. Yet they must. The only forums where arbitration organizations…

This is a 3-part post on why and how a little focused collaboration among practitioners and users can give ADR a tremendous boost. ADR Taboos In recent years, corporate users of ADR services have demanded greater transparency into the skills, experience and suitability of ADR providers and the adoption of stronger professional ethical standards and…

On 25th and 26th June, the ICC and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers: http://fidic.org/) hosted their annual conference in Paris. While most of the discussion was, understandably, concerned with either arbitration or adjudication – the latter involving primarily Disputes Boards (http://www.dbfederation.org/) acting under FIDIC contracts – mediation made an appearance at a number of…

“At these times”, said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.” (From Harry Potter, by JK Rowling,…

Faithful readers will recall my posts here and here mentioning the failed mediation relating to the international effort to reach an agreement on the distribution of some $9 Billion in assets remaining from the Nortel insolvency. The Ontario Courts are now struggling with the fallout from that failed mediation. This week saw the release of…

UIA World Forum of Mediation Centres took part in Prague from Friday June 7 to Saturday June 8 20013. What are the newest developments mentioned during the symposium? The beginning of the June 2013 was affected by heavily floods that stroke in all the Czech Republic and that threatened the Czech capital Prague. By coincidence,…

I wrote in a previous entry about Encouraging Mediation – Recent Developments in Singapore. Those developments referred to court-based initiatives that made it necessary for lawyers to bring to their clients’ attention the possibility of turning to ADR to resolve their matter as well as the courts taking into account the parties’ conduct in relation…

A human resources manager recently asked me for a general list of reasons why a mediation might not settle. While part of me wanted to question the idea of settlement as the goal of mediation (see Alan Gross’s excellent piece ‘Agreement Not the Gold Standard for Mediation – http://www.mediate.com/articles/GrossA3.cfm ) most of me thought this…