Resolution Strategies

I tend to think of negotiation as a competitive process that necessarily requires cooperation in order for the parties to reach their shared objective of resolution. The reason I consider the process "competitive" is that each side generally wants to be “the winner,” i.e., the party that negotiated [...]

In July of 2008, my family and I — together with other families from Temple Judea in Tarzana, including the families of some of our closest friends — travelled to Israel with Rabbi Dan Moskovitz. For all of us, it was and remains the trip of a lifetime. The tragic events of October 7th instantly bro [...]

Sometimes, the parties to a dispute become so immersed in the details and so entrenched in their respective positions that they develop tunnel vision and can't see a seemingly apparent solution. The following apocryphal story, which has been told in a variety of ways throughout the years, illustrate [...]

It borders on heresy for a mediator to publicly endorse the notion that one party or the other can sometimes benefit by "walking" away during a mediation, but that's precisely what I'm here to say. Paradoxically, that's because "walking" can sometimes be an effective way to reach a resolution. Consi [...]

Like most of my colleagues, the disputes I mediate usually involve claims in which one party seeks to recover compensation from one or more other parties. But every so often, it's not about money. Two weeks ago, I mediated a professional malpractice claim where defense counsel informed me, during ou [...]