2 PerspectivesMay 12, 2011

Don Philbin and Doug Noll: Two More Reasons to Go to Malibu this June

Longtime readers know I’m a big fan of training programs at Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, but our friends in Malibu have just given us two more reasons to come back for the 24th Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution – Don Philbin and Douglas Noll.

You probably know Don as a mediator or through his work on adrtoolbox.com or his often-cited Harvard Negotiation Law Review article, and you likely know Doug from his numerous books, his mediation practice focusing on “difficult, complex, and intractable conflicts,” and his various works at lawyertopeacemaker.com – but what you may not know is that they have teamed up to teach a cutting-edge class at Pepperdine this summer to help mediators, lawyers and their clients achieve better settlements from the Monday after the training ends.

Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and More

Philbin and Noll have agreed to cover several critical topics in the three-day course, most of which are neglected or underserved in mediation training – the title to their course is “Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse Using More…

Categories: ADR,Education,Mediation,Negotiation

5 PerspectivesJune 7, 2010

Negotiating through Impasse: A Paper from the Archives

a .pdf copy of “Break that Impasse:  Practical Solutions to Eliminate Deadlock in Settlement Negotiations” is available here

Lately I have heard about impasse more often than normal — Marc Lanzkowsky posted 3 Settlement Techniques that Will Help Move a Case to Resolution on The Claims SPOT, which drove a great follow-on discussion about impasse among LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group.  As the comments continued, I thought about how much we all try to avoid — or work through — impasse, and an old article of mine came to mind.  This is a quick post intended to reintroduce that article to the discussion.

Break that Impasse:  Practical Suggestions to Eliminate Deadlock

It seems like only yesterday, but in 2004 I co-presented  Break that Impasse: Practical Suggestions to Eliminate Deadlock in Settlement Negotiations to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Annual Meeting in Chicago with an all-star group of copanelists, including Eric D. Green, Ross W. Stoddard, Melvin S. Merzon and Mark Tatelbaum.  The paper, available here, is more than a few years old and I wrote it before my mediation training (so all disclaimers apply), but “Break that Impasse” includes:

• 20+ pages of ideas about how to prevent and break impasse — written primarily from the client’s perspective;
• Over 100 footnotes to mediators, judges, lawyers, clients and others who contributed their ideas to the paper; and
• A sample mediator’s proposal form, supplied by copanelist Ross Stoddard.

Take a look at “Break that Impasse” the next time impasse approaches — I hope it helps.

Categories: ADR,Fundamentals,Mediation,Negotiation,Settlement,Tactics

2 PerspectivesApril 1, 2010

The Multi-Step Dispute Resolution Clause: A Few Reasons Why Clients Like Them

Last week we defined multi-step dispute resolution clauses and explored why a dispute resolution framework, negotiated before the contract is signed, can help businesses avoid litigation in many cases.  This post will give you a few more reasons why your client might want a multi-step dispute resolution clause next time — even if a dispute seems unlikely.

To better understand why I spoke with my longtime transaction counsel Colleen Vossler last week, and she made her clients’ case clearly:

In my experience many clients with long-term contracts understand the intrinsic value of creating, at the outset of the relationship, a roadmap to follow when disputes arise. Importantly, the client shares the same roadmap with the other party – rather than creating separate roadmaps when the dispute is upon them. Clients who have experienced conflicts in long-term contracts, where the preservation of the relationship may have more value than in a short-term contract, often view these clauses as an insurance policy for when a dispute arises.

The “roadmap” provided by a multi-step dispute resolution clause More…

Categories: ADR,Communication,Negotiation,Settlement

10 PerspectivesMarch 30, 2010

Lawsuit Settlement: 7 Ways to Get There Faster, Better and Cheaper — The Presentation

Late last week I got the chance to present Lawsuit Settlement: 7 Ways to Get There Faster, Better and Cheaper to a great group of lawyers with a real stake in when cases settle at the Chief Litigation Officer Summit in Miami.  It’s always rewarding to speak with an audience that understands — and cares about — the topic, and this group of senior in-house lawyers reminded me why.

The PowerPoint, with Hyperlinks (and Directions)

After last week’s presentation I promised a few of the attendees I’d post a PowerPoint version of More…

Categories: ADR,Miscellaneous,Negotiation,Selected Posts,Settlement