Heidi and Guy Burgess have long focused on how society – and our field – can deal with intractable conflicts. They publish a newsletter, Beyond Intractability, that includes lots of thoughtful articles about this. The latest issue features an article they co-authored with Sanda Kaufman, Applying Conflict Resolution Insights to the Hyper-Polarized, Society-Wide Conflicts Threatening … Continue reading How Can We Reduce Hyper-Polarization?
Kris Franklin and Peter Phillips of New York Law School just wrote an excellent article that people who care about teaching dispute resolution in law schools should read: Pass the Salt: Problem Resolution Lawyering Across the 21st Century Law Curriculum. Here’s the abstract: Attorneys work with clients to resolve problems. Legal education can help prepare … Continue reading Problem Resolution Lawyering Across the 21st Century Law Curriculum
The New York Times published a fascinating account of the plea bargaining of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization CFO. This was unusual because details of plea bargaining processes usually are kept private. This process included the very active participation of the trial judge, who made suggestions and offered to keep Mr. Weisselberg’s sentence relatively short … Continue reading Inside a High-Profile Plea Bargaining: Part I
The Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York and the City University of New York Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College will host a Virtual Roundtable Breakfast entitled, “ADR As a First Career: It Is Possible!” featuring Alyson Carrel. She is clinical professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and co-director of its … Continue reading Alyson Carrel Program on Sept 1: ADR As A First Career: It Is Possible!
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $392 billion of federal investments in energy and climate policies, reflects a complex political evolution over recent decades, as described in this Washington Post article. Multiple Political Changes The bill was adopted on a purely party-line vote, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposed. … Continue reading A Long, Hard Road to “Yes”
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
For a long time, Donna Shestowsky has conducted empirical studies of litigants’ perceptions about dispute resolution processes. CPR’s Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation magazine just published an article summarizing her study about parties’ expectations about the process used to resolve their cases. The article is Why Client Expectations of Legal Procedures Must Be … Continue reading Shestowsky’s Study Supports Value of Lawyers’ Early Education of Clients About Their Procedural Options
From Sharon Press and Noam Ebner: The wait it over… the 2022 Legal Educators’ Resource Share is now out and is linked below, including the 2022 appendices! Noam and I are working on a version which will be indexed (and therefore easier to search) but we wanted you all to have this now as you … Continue reading Latest Resource Share Materials
Your answer to this question probably is a good indicator of your degree of introversion or extroversion. In an article, How Many Friends Do You Really Need?, confessed introvert and New York Times writer Catherine Pearson describes an argument she has with her husband about how many friends they should have. We both have one … Continue reading How Many Friends Do You Want?
Mediators have long recognized that they can use humor to help disputants deal with conflict (though it can really backfire). What about using humor when it seems like the world is going to hell? In her essay, Please Laugh About My Abortion With Me, comedian Alison Leiby describes experiences with her comedy show “Oh God, … Continue reading Humor Theory for When Everything Seems Like it is Going to Hell
