My son loves Nanny McPhee. For those who don’t have children, it is a lovely British movie with Emma Thompson , adapted from Christianna Brand’s “Nurse Matilda” books. It goes more or less like this: In 19th century England, a widowed man has seven children who have had a series of seventeen nannies, whom they…
Mediator is New Premier in Ontario Following my rant last month about the need for more mediators in public policy-making, the Liberal Party of Ontario has chosen a former mediator, Kathleen Wynne, as their new leader and, consequently, as the first woman Premier of Ontario. I had no idea this Blog had so much influence….
In a complex business dispute involving substantial and potentially unlimited exposure, a sophisticated defendant was not willing to pay the amount it determined it would actually take to settle, so they became primarily concerned about how to ‘cap’ their exposure on the case. Based on an excellent working relationship that developed between general counsel for…
[Author’s Note: While this entry is technically not about mediation, I believe that mediators are in the business of peace making and I hope these thoughts resonate with readers.] I’ve been thinking about peace quite a lot. This was prompted by my reading of an article about the Nobel Peace Prize and how nominations for…
Interesting ripples on the interweb about mediator ‘styles’ – (see the LinkedIn group ‘ADR, Conflict Resolution and Mediation Exchange’). One discussion thread was prompted by a nice ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ question: can a mediator have any style or does the style vary from situation to situation? The discussion has ranged from styles to models, with…
Mackerel has recently been taken off the ‘Fish to Eat’ list of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). Due to overfishing, MCS has downgraded its rating of this popular oily fish. The society believes that international arguments about mackerel quotas mean it is no longer a sustainable choice. MCS advises that mackerel should now only be…
You may have seen a post on 17 April 2012 exploring the thinking behind the Commercial Mediation Group, an affiliation that aims to give a voice to the users of commercial mediation services. The post explained what the CMG had been up to since its inception and communicated the results of a survey on topical…
The 8th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition begins tomorrow at the International Chamber of Commerce, in Paris. During the Competition, university students will face complex, international business problems, which they attempt to resolve by mediation conducted under the ICC Amicable Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules. By participating in the Competition, students will get the unique opportunity…
It was with horror that I read Bill Marsh’s blog this week reporting on the shooting of parties to a mediation in Arizona – news of the event hadn’t crossed the Atlantic at that stage. One of my immediate reactions was to think – my God, the poor mediator. How do you deal with that?…
Many of you will have read of the tragedy this week in Arizona, where a mediation ended in the death of one party, and the serious wounding of their lawyer. Details are still sketchy, but it seems that a mediation of a commercial dispute was taking place in an office in downtown Phoenix, between a…
