Commercial Mediation, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Mediation Practice, Regulation

(Serle Court)/ /Leave a comment

What is it about disputes in regulated sectors that make them suited to mediation? Regulated sectors are ripe for disputes. Whether it’s the energy, financial or telecoms sector, there are often incumbent players that own key infrastructure that is essential for delivering services to customers. At the same time new entrants may be vying for…

Brexit, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Game Theory, Negotiation

(Greg Rooney Mediator)/ /Leave a comment

The U.K.’s decision to leave the EU and the voting in of the protectionist Donald Trump to the US presidency has drawn both the UK and the USA into the Nash Trap. U.S. mathematician John Nash (the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’) postulated that Adam Smith’s declaration that ‘In competition, individual ambition serves the common good’…

Bias, Communication, Conflict, Creativity, Decision making, Dialogue, Dispute Resolution, Economics, Ethics, Instinct, Language, Lawyers, Legal Practice, Mediation Lawyering, Neuroscience, Skills

(Core Solutions Group)/ /6 Comments

I recently attended the annual American Bar Association Dispute Resolution conference in San Francisco. Several themes emerged (for me) as fairly critical for modern lawyers. Here’s a top ten. Problem-Solving and Risk Analysis is more than learning about the law or what a court might do. Most issues which clients bring to lawyers are resolved…

Clients, Cross-cultural, Developing the Field, Environmental Mediation, Ethics, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Mediation Users/Clients, Practical Challenges for Mediators

/ /Leave a comment

Forty-five years ago, Professor Christopher Stone published a paper entitled “Should Trees have Standing? Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects”. [45 Southern California Law Review 450–501.] Two years later, that paper had morphed into a book of the same title, with the subtitle, “Law, morality and the Environment” (1974; 3rd ed, 2010; OUP). Stone’s objective…

Communication, Cross-cultural, Training, Transformation

(Bond & Bond Mediation / University of Wildau )/ /Leave a comment

I have given a little thought as to whether my work as a mediator fits into one of the well-known “styles.” I do not see myself as an evaluative or directive mediator, but I do sometimes tell clients how I see their options. I would say I am a facilitative mediator, but as perhaps most…

Conciliation, Dispute Resolution, Germany, Legal Issues, Limitation period, National Mediation Laws, Regulation

(Eisenberger & Herzog Rechtsanwalts GmbH) and (zeiler.partners)/ /Leave a comment

Conciliation is attracting more and more users for its prided features as an easily accessible, cost- and time-effective procedure for dispute resolution. It is supported and also evidenced in the recent effort put into the discussion by UNCITRAL Working Group II to establish new instruments – a convention and a model law – with regard…

Commercial Mediation, International commercial mediation, International Mediation, Lawyers, lawyers in mediation, Negotiation

(MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

Savvy litigators often tell their clients that “a bad settlement always beats a good litigation”. That may be partly because there is embarrassingly scant guidance in the literature, or even in the world’s law schools, on how lawyers can help their clients settle well rather than badly. I recently had the honor of writing the…

Co-mediation, Cross-cultural, Developing the Field, Future of mediation, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), lawyers in mediation, Mediation Lawyering, Mediation Practice, Negotiation, Promoting Mediation, Scotland, Training, Uncategorized

(University of Strathclyde)/
Students demonstrating cooperation

Morton Deutsch, the great social psychologist of common sense, explained the difference between competition and cooperation thus: “if you’re positively linked with another, then you sink or swim together; with negative linkage, if the other sinks, you swim, and if the other swims, you sink.”[1]Cooperation and Competition. In M. Deutsch, P. T. Coleman, & E….

Bias, Cognitive Bias, Communication, General, Interests, Language, Perception, Philosophy, Stories, Trust

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /2 Comments

Public Service Warning: This blog post will contain spoilers. If you have not watched Arrival and intend to, please do not read any further. I’m a movie addict. I admit it. And I am ashamed to say that most times, my favourite genre of movies is the “check your brain in at the door shoot…

Mediation as a business, mediation as a career, Mediation Practice, Practical Challenges for Mediators

(Goodman Walker)/ /5 Comments

In the first of a series of blogs on the business of mediation, Stephen Walker, author of Setting Up In Business As A Mediator (Bloomsbury Dec 2015), discusses whether mediation is a business at all. Is Mediation A Business? The short answer is yes, if you want it to be. But should it be? Not everybody…