Resolution Strategies

Many years ago, with trial scheduled to start the following week, the parties retained me to conduct a "last-minute" mediation. The facts were straightforward and there was no dispute about liability. Defendant had caused a minor rear-end collision — the impact so minor that there was virtually no v [...]

Those who’ve worked with me know I’ve made it a cornerstone of my practice to try to connect with each attorney before mediation to discuss how to design the mediation process for optimal results. During the course of these pre-mediation calls, I routinely ask counsel whether they're open to engagin [...]

[This is an updated version of the May 2019 edition of Resolution Strategies, which has always been one of my favorites!] As they do every April, the world’s greatest golfers gathered in Augusta, Georgia last month to compete in what many consider to be the sport’s most prestigious tournament — the [...]

If I was building a library about negotiation, I'd start with a book called “The Science of Settlement: Ideas for Negotiators” by Barry Goldman, adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School. In a mere 167 pages — 177 if you count the glossary — Professor Goldman provides a wealth of inform [...]

When I began offering my services as a mediator more than 16 years ago, I held myself personally responsible every time a mediation ended in an impasse — convinced that I had failed to do my job and had let down the parties and their counsel. Intellectually, of course, I understood that mediation wa [...]