As soon as the news of the Ukrainian invasion emerged in late February, I felt the urgent need to address in writing what had been unthinkable only days earlier but which has now changed Europe for good. At the same time, I felt a massive sense of despair and helplessness which rendered me mute. Weeks…
As a mediator, have you ever come across a situation where the parties and their respective legal representatives insist to have a face-to-face mediation session with you against a backdrop of sudden rise of confirmed Covid cases in your city to the extent that social distancing measures are being tightened and the Judiciary has announced…
Kleros is a cryptocurrency dispute resolution platform. It uses crypto tokens and game theory to resolve real-world disputes. It follows an automated process with no discussion, no nuance, no probing questions. It seems to be at the opposite end of the dispute resolution spectrum to mediation. Yet I think there is something that mediators can…
The Daily Blogpost from the Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON) is always a great way to start the day. A quick read, it often turns something that I have been processing at the back of my mind into a more solid idea I can inspect and explore. This week, a particularly relevant post about…
Mediation is a confidential process with an impartial third party (the mediator) assisting the disputing parties to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Skilled mediators are also engaged by potential business partners to assist in the deal-making process. The Hong Kong SAR Government (Hong Kong Government) and in particular the Department of Justice has been promoting…
I teach an online course for lawyers to help them become more comfortable working with numbers. We spend quite a lot of time on litigation forecasting: assigning probabilities to different outcomes, combining these probabilities correctly and coming up with an overall estimated value for the claim. This is useful to frame the parameters for any…
Dear Young Mediation Enthusiast, Last December, I sent you a letter and shared three topics of mediation, namely, (1) qualifications; (2) practice and marketing; and (3) training, with you. Thank you for keeping in touch with me despite the pandemic. I am glad that you are still keen to start your mediation practice. Your further…
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard (PON) sends to subscribers a daily blogpost of interesting negotiation thoughts and analyses. It regularly visits the negotiation styles of world leaders with the idea that ‘by studying the negotiation styles of famous leaders, we can identify what to emulate and what to abandon’. Unsurprisingly it has shone a…
Readers of the Kluwer Mediation Blog may notice that the first batch of blog entries of Kluwer Mediation Blog (KMB) were posted by Michael Mcllwrath, Michael Leathes, Geoff Sharp, Ales Zalar with Eleanor Taylor writing a welcome note on behalf of Kluwer Law International and the Introductory Post from the Co-Editors (Introductory Post) by Bill Marsh…
Conducting mediation and arbitration meetings by remote means is not new to mediators, arbitrators, and practitioners. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person meetings have been replaced with video teleconference. Remote or virtual participation in mediation sessions, arbitration hearings, and even court trials become a new normal. Founded in 2018, eBRAM International Online Dispute…
