For this month's edition of Resolution Strategies, I approached the writing process a bit differently, all because of a meaningful chat I had last month — with artificial intelligence. In early April, I asked ChatGPT — Chat, for short — to help me rewrite the Baseball Mediation™ page on my website. [...]
A week from Saturday is the first night of Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. The holiday also plays a significant role in the advent of Christianity because "The Last Supper" — according to the Gospels — was the Passover Seder atte [...]
As I watched — and then re-watched — the entire Oval Office exchange between President Trump and President Zelinskyy, I was reminded of an experience that I had in mediation as an advocate many years ago, before becoming a mediator. During a joint session, in front of opposing counsel, the mediator [...]
In multi-party disputes, a tender of defense can be an instant game-changer when it comes to assessing risk and developing a cost-effective resolution strategy. All too often, a party contractually obligated to defend and indemnify another party seemingly ignores the fact that the duty to defend ari [...]
In their 1981 bestseller “Getting to Yes,” Roger Fisher and William Ury introduced a new acronym into the negotiating strategy lexicon: BATNA — "Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement." Simply put, Fisher and Ury noted that those who engage in any form of negotiation will improve their bargainin [...]
Two weeks after Freddie Freeman — doing his best Kirk Gibson impression — hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history in Game 1 and barely one week after the Dodgers staged an improbable 5-run comeback in the 5th inning of Game 5 and went on clinch another championship, breaking a 99-y [...]
Given the approaching election, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump earlier this summer and the increasingly ugly and dangerous political rhetoric, I've decided to republish excerpts from the February 2011 edition of Resolution Strategies, which I wrote less than one month after the attempte [...]
One of the litigator’s most powerful tools — especially given increased court congestion due to budgetary constraints — is the judicious and timely use of a Statutory Offer to Compromise, pursuant to CCP Section 998 ("998 Offer"). But when, in the litigation timeline, is the best time to serve a 998 [...]
Every month, the neutrals at Judicate West gather on Zoom for what we call our "Mediation Forum," where we discuss a variety of topics, brainstorm and share tips and insights with one another. Several months ago, toward the end of the hour-long session, the following question was posed (which I para [...]
Defendant — who happened to be representing himself — arrived quite a bit early for the mediation, so I invited him to join me in one caucus room to discuss the facts that gave rise to the litigation. Facing allegations he had misappropriated trade secrets and started a new business in violation of [...]