Resolution Strategies

When Dancing with the Stars premiered back in 2005, my daughter Jamie was just eight years old. Every week, we'd watch together — with unabashed and unapologetic enthusiasm — as the professional dancers magically transformed their celebrity partners into honest-to-goodness ballroom dancers, able to [...]

For reasons I've never understood, many attorneys resist face-to-face dialogue during mediation. Some fear it will be confrontational; others worry it will weaken their position. Yet avoiding direct conversation often deprives the parties of mediation's full value. In one memorable mediation, it was [...]

[This is an updated version of an oldie-but-goodie from 2018] In June of 1894, amidst a deepening economic crisis, railroad employees staged a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, to protest severe wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. Within days, members of the American Rail [...]

For years, there was a recurring ad in CAALA’s Advocate and ASCDC’s Verdict that always caught my attention. The ad featured the silhouette of a figure — holding an open umbrella, à la Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain — on a tightrope between two skyscrapers. The ad was the brainchild of the late J [...]

In the inaugural edition of Resolution Strategies, titled “THE ART OF NEGOTIATING: PAINT WITH NUMBERS,” I wrote, “Every demand or offer you make will be analyzed . . . to deduce your negotiating strategy. Be mindful, therefore, to choose numbers that paint the picture you want the other side to see. [...]