Tag Archives: Psychology

Un-Gaslighting

Have you seen the classic movie, Gaslight?  It’s the story of a husband who slowly manipulates his wife into believing that she is insane because she imagines things, which are real, such as a gaslight flickering. This is the film noir version of the Marx Brothers quip, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying … Continue reading Un-Gaslighting

Letting Go and Forgiving

The New York Times “smarter living” column has an interesting piece about letting go of grudges and forgiving others. It cites research about the benefits of doing so. A 2006 study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology as part of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, suggested that “skills-based forgiveness training may prove effective in reducing … Continue reading Letting Go and Forgiving

Becoming Ourselves

Michelle Obama’s fabulous memoir, Becoming, has valuable lessons for us in legal education and practice.  This post first summarizes the book and then describes some of these lessons. The book is a chronological narrative of Ms. Obama’s life, which is fascinating in itself, though I was particularly interested in her portrayals of the worlds she … Continue reading Becoming Ourselves

Notes from Hastings’s Symposium on The Integrated Lawyer

From Debra Gerardi:  “Wholeness is not a place you can get to. Wholeness is a kind of attitude or approach to the whole of life. It’s a way.” David Bohm The University of California Hastings College of the Law held a two-day symposium last month entitled, The Integrated Lawyer: A Symposium on Well-Being and the … Continue reading Notes from Hastings’s Symposium on The Integrated Lawyer

Legal Stress

In a recent post, I described the intense stress that individual and organizational litigants often undergo as a result of litigation.  The legal system attracts and magnifies stressful conflicts, which affects everyone in its ambit.  In addition to litigants, this includes law students, lawyers, and legal academics. This post provides excerpts from my research summarizing … Continue reading Legal Stress

Kiser’s Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer

I was really pleased to meet Randall Kiser at last year’s ABA conference.  I was very impressed by his important study (co-authored with Martin Asher and Blakeley McShane), Let’s Not Make a Deal: An Empirical Examination of Decision Making in Unsuccessful Negotiations.  The top-line finding was that in 85.5% of cases, parties went to trial … Continue reading Kiser’s Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer

Stone Soup Mini-Course: The Joy of Learning

Have you ever felt really excited when you had an “aha” moment of insight?  I bet that virtually all readers of this blog have had that experience numbers of times. Sometimes this can come from doing a simulation as part of a training, when you “get” the potential of something you had never considered before, … Continue reading Stone Soup Mini-Course: The Joy of Learning

Young OGEMID Virtual Symposium: Alt-Facts and the Post-Truth Society Through an Arbitral Lens

From my colleague, S.I. Strong: Young OGEMID will be hosting its next “virtual symposium” as of March 20, and you may want to sign up (if you are untenured) or pass the information along to your students.  This one is interdisciplinary in nature and should be quite interesting.  More information shows below on the topic … Continue reading Young OGEMID Virtual Symposium: Alt-Facts and the Post-Truth Society Through an Arbitral Lens

Escaping Lawyers’ Prison of Fear in Litigation and Negotiation

You might like to read the cover story in the November 2015 issue of the ABA Journal, “Lawyers Shackled by Fear, Fear Not:  While Feelings of Dread May Be Endemic to the Legal Profession, They Can Be Transformed to Positive Effect,” which features my article, Escaping from Lawyers’ Prison of Fear.  (Click on the title … Continue reading Escaping Lawyers’ Prison of Fear in Litigation and Negotiation