This short article presents accounts of ten mediators about the factors affecting how we handle continuing streams of mediations – our mediation systems. These systems are the combination of factors affecting what mediators do before, during, and after mediation sessions. The systems include their routine procedures and strategies for dealing with recurring challenging situations. The … Continue reading Ten Real Mediation Systems
I will present a draft of my article, Real Mediation Models to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals, at the Works-in-Progress conference next month and I am posting it now so that you can read it before then if you like. People can attend the conference in person or by video – and I … Continue reading Would you like to read a WIP draft?
The news media have a well-known bad-news bias. If something bad is happening or – better yet – threatening to happen, the headlines scream of impending disaster. Good news, not so much coverage. If something good happens, including averted potential disasters, ho-hum. There is much less coverage and it’s much less prominent. Such was the … Continue reading Mediators Help Save the Economy
Mediation theory generally focuses on models of mediation procedures. While prescribed procedures obviously can be important factors affecting mediators’ behavior, traditional mediation theories are major oversimplifications that often don’t reflect the reality of how mediators actually think and act. Many mediators agree with this critique, but these theoretical concepts still are widely used without much … Continue reading Real Mediators’ Real Mediation Models
That’s the title of a program I recently did for the Association of Northern [England] Mediators. I began by describing why formal mediation models, such as the facilitative and evaluative models, are incomplete and often misleading. Mediators constantly must answer the question “What do I do now?”, and the formal models don’t help in most … Continue reading How You Can Build a Mediation Model to Optimize Your Own Cases
Peter Reilly’s call for updates on our scholarship prompted me to create the following lists of short articles and blog posts I wrote this year. You might want to read some or see if any would fit into your syllabi as required or recommended readings addressing your teaching goals. The following pieces focus directly on … Continue reading Short Pieces You Might Want to Read
In a recent presentation to mediators in Michigan, I asked the audience to describe what was frustrating in their mediations. They often struggle when lawyers and parties are not prepared when they go to mediation, have unrealistic expectations, and act very emotionally. Their reactions prompted me to write this short article in the Michigan Dispute … Continue reading How Mediators Can Solve Tough Problems in Mediation
From Jen Michel: Dear colleagues, Please forgive me for a brief e-introduction in this now-virtual world. My name is Jennifer Michel and I am the new director of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. I look forward to our paths crossing in the near future. I am also reaching out to share information regarding the … Continue reading ABA Dispute Resolution Mediation Institute on Nov 4-6
Law school teaches students that law is a seamless web of rules emanating from authorities like statutes and cases which they must memorize and finely parse in hypothetical cases. In real life, practitioners generally think of law in terms of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous definition: “prophecies of what the courts will do in fact.” Of … Continue reading The Role of Law in Legal Disputes
People often say that dispute resolution processes aren’t “one size fits all.” When practitioners are asked to opine about hypothetical problems, they often say “it depends” and they make “case by case” decisions. They are telling the truth. Lawyers make complex decisions as negotiators, litigation advocates, and mediators based on a lot of factors, so … Continue reading Teaching Students to Think Like Practitioners
