Unless we ourselves are involved, whether as mediators, advisors, parties or support persons, we do not often find out what happened in a mediation because communications between the participants are predominantly confidential and “without prejudice”, so evidence of who said what to whom is inadmissible in court proceedings. One of the few exceptions in New…
As long ago as 1981, in the very first edition of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury proposed the following novel negotiation method: separate the people from the problem focus on interests, not positions invent options for mutual gain and insist on using objective criteria. Later…
Every year since 2004, this competition has brought together law students, coaches and mediation professionals from around the world. The competition provides the opportunity for the students to demonstrate and improve their negotiation skills, a subject not taught to undergraduates of my generation. It also brings together numerous mediation professionals in a collegiate environment. In…
Today’s mediation scenario embraces a wide range of circumstances in which disputants of all kinds find themselves engaging with a mediator. Once it became apparent to lawyers and arbitrators that mediation could not be dismissed as a passing fancy, judges in various jurisdictions who were concerned to improve the judicial system to make it “just,…
The consultation phase of the independent review of the Australian National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS Review 2020-22) was completed in May and Findings and Recommendations are now available. The NMAS has been reviewed twice since its implementation in 2008. The Mediator Standards Board(MSB) share on their website that the most recent review was led by…
In the beginning … Back in the 1976 Pound Conference called “Proceedings of the National Conference on the Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice”, Harvard…
Online processes in all professions soared during Covid. The legal profession was transformed. A multitude of online mediation platforms miraculously appeared and mediators barely skipped a beat. Benefits emerged – especially in a geographically vast continent like Australia – where advocates and their clients in distant locations saved significant costs in time, travelling expenses and…
One of the important things that struck me about Dr. Anna Howard’s brilliant research into Mediation is the discovery that the General Counsel she interviewed for her project feel disappointed that the promise of mediation has not been realized. I feel the same disappointment – although my disappointment has a somewhat different source. What seems…
On the first day of this year the international mediation community lost a wonderful friend and colleague. The memorial page established by his family shows just how wide and deep the affection reaches. He provided memorable experiences to so many of us. And whilst we both certainly remember (and enjoyed) his joie de vivre, the…
