Civil trial lawyers have been testing new techniques to persuade since our constitution authorized the right to jury trials. In the past several years, trial consultants have encouraged use of various strategies ranging from improvisational acting, psychodrama to the current ‘reptile’ approach. The reptile approach is highly effective in that it challenges people to make…

Like many of us I am constantly torn between simplicity and complexity. The world is complex: that’s a given. But a beautiful morning or a lover’s kiss is simplicity itself, and it’s a fool who overcomplicates it. And so with mediation, the profession/activity/vocation that has grown on me like a skin these last nineteen years….

I participated to mediation training over a weekend last December, as part of continuing education of a local non-profit association I chair and which is involved in community mediation (Association genevoise de médiation de voisinage – AsMéd-GE – www.mediation-de-voisinage.ch). Such training was conducted by a well-known and prominent figure of the mediation in France, Mrs….

This year brings an overlap of winter holidays from two different traditions and calendars: Hanukkah and Christmas. Each of these holidays is a story of miracles – wondrous events occurring in times of conflict. In one story, Jewish rebels defeat the Syrian king who outlawed Judaism. Taking back the great temple in Jerusalem from the…

Due to the fact I work as a Mediation professor I am always aware of the question of Ethics. Teaching Mediation implies sharing its ethical principles with the students and helping them to observe such principles in the practice of Mediation. In Brazil nowadays we rely on three Codes of Ethics devoted to Mediation. The…

As I open each mediation session I remind everyone that the mediation is “confidential”, “without prejudice”, “off the record”.  I acknowledged that these three concepts don’t mean precisely the same thing at law but that for practical purposes it is our common intention and agreement that “what’s said here, stays here.” I know there’s more…