Category Archives: Lawyering and Litigation

Planning is Critically Important for Early Dispute Resolution

This post stimulated a conversation with Peter Benner about planned early dispute resolution (PEDR), beginning with the exchange of comments below.  There are six additional posts in this conversation.   At the end of each post, there is a link to the next post in the conversation. _______________________________________________________________ Early mediation is a waste of time. This … Continue reading Planning is Critically Important for Early Dispute Resolution

Fear and Negotiation

I can’t resist commenting on Andrea’s lighthearted post showing a sign at a Starbuck’s with President John F. Kennedy’s famous statement, “Let us never negotiate out of fear.  But let us never fear to negotiate!” This reminds me of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s statement, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I … Continue reading Fear and Negotiation

Everything You Know about Dispute Resolution is Wrong – Can You Handle the Truth?

You are cordially invited to this program at the ABA conference in Seattle, which will take place on Friday, April 17, from 3-4:15, in the Orcas Room. My partners in crime for this caper are Alyson Carrel, Jim Coben, and Noam Ebner. Here’s the idea for our program – How many times have you heard … Continue reading Everything You Know about Dispute Resolution is Wrong – Can You Handle the Truth?

Illusions of Competence

BARBRI’s “State of the Legal Field Survey” reports that “71 percent of 3L law students believe they possess sufficient practice skills.  In contrast, only 23 percent of practicing attorneys who work at companies that hire recent law school graduates believe recent law school graduates possess sufficient practice skills.” This finding is puzzling and astounding. It … Continue reading Illusions of Competence

Litigation as Violence

I just read a provocative article entitled, “Litigation as Violence,” by Vincent Cardi (West Virginia), 49 Wake Forest L. Rev. 677 (2014). You may want to assign this nine-page article (and/or this post) in your classes, which may stimulate valuable discussion about the consequences of lawyers’ work for their clients – and themselves. Professor Cardi … Continue reading Litigation as Violence

How Can You Get a Piece of the Action?

In a series of posts, I described significant problems with the traditional negotiation paradigm of two coherent models, positional and interest-based negotiation (or other labels for essentially the same models). This paradigm has been helpful in moving us forward in recent decades. But simply saying that something was a interest-based or positional negotiation not only … Continue reading How Can You Get a Piece of the Action?

Oldies But Goodies

SSRN subscribers will soon see a passel of my old articles scrolling across their screens and may wonder, “What the heck?” The heck is that, thanks to a new scanner, I was able to make nice pdf files of some articles I wrote before I started posting pieces on SSRN. With the benefit of hindsight, … Continue reading Oldies But Goodies