Add Your PerspectiveMarch 30, 2012

Because the Other Side Has a Perspective

Sometimes I don’t need to hear why, or how, it happened — the thing just speaks for itself.  A few months ago I read an article in The New York Times and made up my mind by the third line, which detailed the audience’s anger as “a cellphone began ringing – and ringing, ringing, ringing without cease – during a performance by the New York Philharmonic.”  Through first-hand accounts available from thousandfold echo, Superconductor, and Max Kinchen, we now know that no one cared why, or how, it happened.  Fellow concertgoers yelled, “Thousand dollar fine!”, “Get out!”, and “Kick him out!”.

Later I learned the rest of the story, and the case of the unrelenting marimba ringtone is now an easy way to More…

Categories: Communication,Fundamentals,Mediation,Negotiation

Add Your PerspectiveNovember 22, 2011

BELawsuit.com Is Now Live

I don’t stray off topic often, but occasionally I do — with a warning like this one. This post is about BELawsuit.com rather than negotiation or settlement strategy; feel free to scroll to the next post if that’s why you’re here.

On a long plane ride home from New York in 2009 I wrote about BearingPoint, Inc.’s bankruptcy filing and the next steps in the process, which ultimately led to the sale of BearingPoint’s operations memorialized in press releases here, here, here and here.  This post is about More…

Categories: Miscellaneous

4 PerspectivesNovember 21, 2011

Is Your Law Firm One Click Away from Extinction?

Fifteen years as a client have taught me that people don’t pay lawyers because they want to; they pay them because they have to.  If you’re a lawyer in a law firm, this isn’t abstract advice for somebody else — like it or not, your clients are looking for ways to pay less for what you do.  And I just found another way they will succeed.

Until recently I thought that clients’ drive for efficiency was a function of the economy, and that we’re just a recovery away from business as usual.  Alternative fees are a great idea that most are afraid to implement, discounted hourly rates are as creative as most ever get, and outsourcing legal tasks to anyone other than a traditional law firm was, for all practical More…

Categories: Miscellaneous

5 PerspectivesNovember 9, 2011

The Decision Tree, Step by Step: How Much Is Your Million Dollar Case Worth?

What’s your dispute worth – to you and to the other side? It’s hard to imagine settling without knowing the answer, and a decision tree can be a critical tool to help you get there. As I have said before, there are plenty of reasons why we should use decision trees, but – until now – there hasn’t been a step by step guide detailing how to use them. It’s time to change that.

Smith v. BiggCo, Inc. – Case Background

To demonstrate how to create a decision tree I have used a few screenshots from Resolution Tree, a decision tree product from my friends at Unit Interactive and me.  In this decision tree, you represent Smith, who plans to sue More…

Categories: Communication,Decision Trees,Negotiation,Resolution Tree,Selected Posts