I just wrote a post describing “litigation stress” that parties experience during litigation, noting that this can be particularly painful in some cases like those involving sexual assault allegations. Allegations of sexual assault by Judge Brett Kavanaugh have been in the news a lot lately. While these allegations aren’t being litigated in court, the process … Continue reading Real-Life Account of Litigation Stress in Bill Cosby Case
Litigation offers many potential benefits. It can help people solve difficult problems, make relationships and institutions function properly, and promote justice. It enables people to enlist legitimate, independent government officials to resolve disputes when the parties can’t resolve disputes themselves. Indeed, litigation provides mechanisms for structuring dispute resolution processes that enable most parties to ultimately … Continue reading Reality-Testing Questions for Real Life and Simulations – and Ideas for Stone Soup Assignments
As you gear up for the new year, here’s a reminder of some of my favorite things you might require or recommend that students read. My short “Letter to Kelly” provides advice for new 1Ls. If you teach a 1L course, you might assign it even though it doesn’t focus on any particular 1L subject. … Continue reading Readings and Resources for Teaching
Michaela Keet and Heather Heavin (Saskatchewan), have been studying “litigation interest and risk assessment” (LIRA), something you probably teach using different names. You probably emphasize the importance of analyzing BATNAs and preparing for negotiation and mediation, which are basic elements of LIRA. Building on their own and others’ research, they developed a simple but comprehensive … Continue reading Keet and Heavin on Why Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment is So Darn Important for Lawyers and Mediators – And How You Can Make Stone Soup With It
We all know about situations when people say that they really like the idea of ADR, but it’s not appropriate in their particular case. Sometimes there are very good reasons not to use an ADR process. Other times, not so much. There may be similarities in some people’s reaction to the idea of using a … Continue reading Stone Soup: It’s a Great Idea But . . .
The ABA is offering a 30% discount on its 2017 books. The discount is available only through the end of the month, so you need to act soon to take advantage of this offer. The Section of Dispute Resolution published the following books that qualify for this discount: ● Beyond Smart: Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence … Continue reading 30% Discount on ABA Books — Thru End of February
Recently, I did a post about a new book that Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten co-authored about unbundled legal services. Woody just sent me a link to a podcast conversation he had with our friend, Dr. Julie Macfarlane, the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP). In this podcast, entitled “Back to the Future of Legal … Continue reading Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants
This post describes CLE presentations I gave for the Texas Bar. It provides material for participants at the program and is another illustration of how people can use the Stone Soup Project idea of using continuing education programs to produce and share knowledge about actual practice. I previously tested this approach in two days of … Continue reading Stone Soup: Texas Bar Program for Lawyers and Mediators on Planned Early Negotiation
I had the good fortune to be one of Marc Galanter’s students when I was in graduate school. As one of his former students, I was invited to contribute to a symposium honoring his work and I wrote this appreciation of his scholarship. I suspect that many of us in the dispute resolution community aren’t … Continue reading For Pragmatic Romanticism
Some questions for law professors: Why did you go to law school? Why did you decide to go into academia? What do you want to accomplish in your work? What do you hope for your students? In this post, I give my answers to these questions, which I think will resonate for many readers of … Continue reading Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice
