“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Pablo Picasso. Last month I travelled to Edinburgh for the International Academy of Mediators conference, chaired and hosted by John Sturrock. The theme of the conference was “Looking outward – mediation: a new enlightenment?” Not only was…

It cannot be suggested that mediation in Greece has been a success, yet. It cannot be said that it has been a failure either. The fact of the matter is that few cases have been to mediation to date in this country, hence in practice it is an unfamiliar process for citizens and companies. However,…

Life as a ‘pracademic’ is a wonderful experience. I have the pleasure of teaching intensive programs in ADR at postgraduate and undergraduate level and in between I work in my own practice as a mediator, facilitator and coach. A great life! My teaching life includes the privilege of training my university’s team for the ICC…

There aren’t many models of effective mediation legal frameworks that ensure sustainable systems of mediation. In fact, in most countries, the mediators don’t have demand and a real market for services. They are trying to convince users, lawyers, judges, policy makers, others and sometimes themselves that mediation is a viable option of the dispute resolution…

John Sturrock’s May 1st  thought-provoking blog post on mediator “fairness” styled itself a “provocation” and invited comment and response. Here’s mine. John, thank you for your thought-provoking blog post. My perspective is that of a Canadian commercial mediator with nearly 30 years experience and about 4,000 cases mediated, virtually all involving represented individual claimants and represented…

My guess is that most of my fellow authors on this blog, and probably a high proportion of readers, work in a mediation environment is which clients are represented by counsel. Indeed, if you track back over a number of entries in which matters of process are discussed, it seems typically assumed that counsel are…

Often in the field of mediation we hear complaints about there being too many mediators, too much training and not enough mediation. While I can understand the frustration about the size of the mediation market, I see great benefits in mediation training for people whose aim is not to become mediators and make a living…

While working on the manuscript for a book published last year (Negotiation: Things Corporate Counsel need to know but were not taught – Wolters Kluwer, 2017), I submitted a draft to an eclectic peer group from all around the world to gauge whether I was on the right track. The group comprised corporate counsel, business…

Much has been said and written about the demise of the joint meeting in mediation. In my experience, such a view is premature and, I fear, is potentially wasteful of the power that mediation brings for creative problem-solving. I am also aware of how much the clients and others appreciate a creative approach to the…