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

1 PerspectiveMay 29, 2012

Why Settlement Counsel? A Lesson from the Scorpion and the Frog

“We do not ask our generals to be diplomats, nor our diplomats to be generals.”  William F. Coyne, Jr. used that quote to explain the concept of settlement counsel in a Negotiation Journal article over a decade ago, and I keep coming back to it.

Why does your litigator focus on what happened, rather than what you want?  Is there a reason she needs more depositions before she’s ready to talk settlement?  Why does she have a trial plan but not a settlement plan?

Why Your Litigator Does What She Does

Dallas-based settlement counsel Christopher Nolland recently told me that the story of The Scorpion and the Frog helps explain why we need special settlement counsel, and he’s right.  AesopFables.com tells the story as follows:

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I More…

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

5 PerspectivesApril 2, 2012

Malibu in June? Yes, You Can – And Here’s Why You Should

Whether you’re traveling from Santa Monica or Sanibel Island, getting to Pepperdine for a few days of training isn’t easy, and I don’t endorse any class lightly.  That said, I’m happy to recommend a course I took last summer that’ll be taught again this June by Don Philbin and Doug Noll — because it’s just that good.

Philbin and Noll’s course, Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse Using Brain Science, Game Theory, Animated Communication, and Micro-Interventions, is one of 15 courses offered in Malibu this June at the 25th Annual Summer Professional Skills Program put on by Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, and it has earned its More…

Categories: Education,Mediation,Miscellaneous,Negotiation