Category Archives: General

SEC Stays Its Order Approving FINRA Rule Change Barring Compensated Non-Attorney Representation

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Last month, I blogged here about an important rule change that the SEC approved for FINRA Dispute Resolution. After years of debate about the potential harm to investors by allowing non-attorneys to represent investors in securities arbitration and mediations, FINRA proposed barring them from its forum, if they are compensated. [See the prior post for … Continue reading SEC Stays Its Order Approving FINRA Rule Change Barring Compensated Non-Attorney Representation →

Sheila Heen to Deliver the 7th Annual Meyerson Lecture at Arizona State

I am happy to announce that Sheila Heen (Harvard) will deliver the 7th Annual Bruce E. Meyerson Lecture, titled Difficult Conversations in Polarizing Times, on Monday March 11, 2024 at 7pm at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.  If you are in Phoenix for Spring Break or Spring Training, please … Continue reading Sheila Heen to Deliver the 7th Annual Meyerson Lecture at Arizona State →

Amazing Opportunity for Students to Improve Their Communities Using DR Skills

Groups of students in your classes may want to put their new collaborative skills and creativity into the service of others by entering a new student video contest, sponsored by the AAA-ICDR Foundation and the Divided Community Project’s #CampusBridge initiative. Please spread the word in your classes and share the contest announcement with your university’s … Continue reading Amazing Opportunity for Students to Improve Their Communities Using DR Skills →

Helping Mediators Do the Best Mediation They Can

Helping You Do the Best Mediation You Can is Part 2 of a two-part series presenting action research about factors affecting mediators’ individual practice systems and how they can improve their systems. Part 1 describes a study of mediators at well-received educational programs to help them learn why they developed their particular practice systems and … Continue reading Helping Mediators Do the Best Mediation They Can →

Why Do Mediators Mediate the Way They Do?

Psychologist Kenneth Kressel argued that mediators’ mental models of mediation are largely unconscious mixtures of formal models and “personal ‘mini-theories’ of conflict and role of mediators.”  He defined mental schemas or models as “ideas the mediator holds about the role of the mediator; the goals to be attained (and avoided), and the interventions that are … Continue reading Why Do Mediators Mediate the Way They Do? →

Joint Campus-Law Enforcement Preparation for Campus Demonstrations and Hate Incidents amid Violence in the Middle East: Ideas for an Agenda

Last month I sent you Leading a Divided Campus: Ideas and Illustrations and a checklist for students to extend support to their friends. I write today about a resource just published — Joint Campus-Law Enforcement Preparation for Campus Demonstrations and Hate Incidents amid Violence in the Middle East: Ideas for an Agenda, https://go.osu.edu/dcpgle. We in … Continue reading Joint Campus-Law Enforcement Preparation for Campus Demonstrations and Hate Incidents amid Violence in the Middle East: Ideas for an Agenda →

Law Students Can Use Portfolios to Plan Their Practice Systems

It’s not exactly breaking news that a major function of American law schools is to train an upper stratum of students for jobs as associates in elite law firms and as judicial clerks.  Parsing appellate case opinions and ace-ing closed-book exams are tasks especially well designed for this purpose. Although these activities reflect some important … Continue reading Law Students Can Use Portfolios to Plan Their Practice Systems →

Helping Law Students Define and Pursue Success

On the AALS listserv, Gabe Teninbaum (Suffolk) asked, “[H]ow do we teach students to define successful outcomes in a given scenario?  And how do we help them understand how to communicate with clients about defining their own success?  As a former litigator, I remember balancing clients’ varied goals (their definition of “winning” didn’t always comport … Continue reading Helping Law Students Define and Pursue Success →

Real Lawyering Practice Systems

So far, my pieces in the Real Practice Systems Project have focused on mediation.  The theory is not limited to mediation, and this post applies it to lawyering. In the mediation context, the theory argues that mediators have unique practice systems that grow out of their personal histories, values, goals, motivations, knowledge, and skills as … Continue reading Real Lawyering Practice Systems →

Technology in Real Practice Systems

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Love it or hate it – I sure feel both ways – technology is going to be an increasing part of our lives in the future. And that goes double for dispute resolution practitioners.  Dispute resolution is fundamentally about communication, and technological developments are rapidly revolutionizing how we communicate. I became more conscious of the … Continue reading Technology in Real Practice Systems →