Add Your PerspectiveNovember 25, 2013

Settlement the Way Your Clients Want It — The Presentation

It’s hard to imagine a better audience than the Dallas Bar Association’s Bench Bar Conference to discuss litigation, settlement, and new ways to look at both.  I recently got the chance to do just that, and the talk — and the debate that followed — were even better than I had imagined.

Clients often have a different perspective on settlement than their lawyers, and we had fun exploring why.

No, we didn’t start with stories about settlement.  We began with the Zig Ziglar’s take on how a newlywed couple cooked their fist roast — and we decided that just because we’ve been settling cases one way for the last 30 years doesn’t mean we need to settle cases the same way tomorrow.

I won’t repeat the whole talk here, but a few highlights include:

• The quote from one of my old clients that first put it all into perspective for me:  “I’m not in the litigation business.  I’m in the business business.”
• Why — and how — clients are different from the lawyers they work with; More…

Categories: ADR,Mediation,Negotiation,Settlement

Add Your PerspectiveApril 4, 2013

Settlement Counsel: 10 Free Internet Resources

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Settlement Counsel concept — I’ve written about it, I’ve published an Updated List of Settlement Counsel, and I’m speaking about the idea in practice with Gary McGowan and Christopher Nolland today at the 15th Annual Section of Dispute Resolution’s Spring Conference.

For lawyers and clients wanting to learn more, a quick Internet search for “Settlement Counsel” doesn’t easily lead to the most informative — and free — resources, so I pulled together a list of links to where you might want to start.  Naturally, if you think I missed a good one, please let me know.

Settlement Counsel Hyperlinks

• Kathy A. Bryan, When ‘Winning’ Is the Expensive Solution, LEGAL TIMES (Apr. 16, 2007).
• Kathy A. Bryan, Why Should Businesses Hire Settlement Counsel?, 2008 J. DISP. RESOL. 195.
• John DeGroote, Who Serves as Settlement Counsel?  The (Updated) List, SETTLEMENT PERSPECTIVES L. BLOG (June 11, 2012).
• John DeGroote, Why Settlement Counsel? A Lesson from the Scorpion and the Frog, SETTLEMENT PERSPECTIVES L. BLOG (May 29, 2012).
• John Lande, The Movement Toward Early Case Handling in Courts and Private Dispute Resolution , 24 OHIO ST. J. ON DISP. RESOL. 83, 115-20 (2008).
• James E. McGuire, Why Litigators Should Use Settlement Counsel, 18 ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG. 6 (June 2000).*
• Gary Mendelsohn, Lawyers as Negotiators, 1 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. 139, 139-67 (1996). More…

Categories: ADR,Negotiation,Settlement,Settlement Counsel

1 PerspectiveAugust 2, 2012

Effective Litigation Management: The TexasBarCLE Presentation

Tomorrow I’ll be joining my longtime friends Frank Vecella and Robert Manley to present “Effective Litigation Management: Doing a Good Job at ‘Herding Cats’” at the TexasBarCLE’s 11th Annual Advanced In-House Counsel Course.  This project has been fun, productive, and educational so far, and we’re looking forward to Friday.

Hyperlinks to the PowerPoint and the Paper

The slides we plan to present, and the paper that accompanies the presentation, are available in the following formats using the following hyperlinks:

• The Paper, in .pdf format, can be accessed using this link.
• The Presentation, in PowerPoint format, can be accessed using this link.

Take a look at the presentation — you’ll be glad you did.

Categories: ADR,Decision Trees,ECA,Mediation,Negotiation,Resolution Tree,Settlement,Tactics

2 PerspectivesJune 11, 2012

Who Serves as Settlement Counsel? The (Updated) List

As you may know from my last post, I’ve been working on a few settlement counsel projects this summer.  Along the way I’ve learned that it’s not always easy to determine who actually serves as settlement counsel.  This is my effort to fix that problem.

Subject to the caveats at the bottom of this post, this list includes all the active settlement counsel I have found, updated as new information arrives.  If you’re aware of additional settlement counsel out there, or if you believe the hyperlink to one of the folks listed below needs to be updated, please let me know.

List of Special Settlement Counsel

1. Stephen D. “Steve” Altman – Washington, D.C.
2. Trey Bergman – Houston, Texas
3. Robert W. “Bob” Berliner, Jr. – Chicago, Illinois
4. Julian W. Bodnar – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada)
5. Monte Bond – Dallas, Texas
6. Mark J. Bunim – New York, New York
7. Mark A. Calhoun – Dallas, Texas
8. Francis “Frank” Carling – New York, New York
9. Francis L. Carter - Miami, Florida
10. Jonathan M. Cohen – Washington, D.C.
11. Robert F. “Bob” Copple – Scottsdale, Arizona
12. Ralph Cuervo-Lorens – Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
13. Ben Cunningham – Austin, Texas
14. John DeGroote – Dallas, Texas More…

Categories: Miscellaneous,Negotiation,Settlement,Settlement Counsel