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
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?
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
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
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
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
The Real Practice System Menu of Mediation Checklists received many rave reviews. People said that they are “interesting,” “informative,” “so very useful,” “really helpful,” “great,” “excellent,” “wonderful,” “fantastic,” “invaluable,” “impressive,” “very thorough,” “brilliant,” and “utterly awesome” resources. “Just wow!” I identified numerous ways that the checklists could be used by practitioners, program administrators, and faculty, … Continue reading Practitioners Tell Why Real Practice System Checklists Are So Useful
Tom Valenti is a Chicago-based conflict resolution specialist offering mediation, arbitration, and facilitation services and training. He also is a humanitarian activist who is a co-founder of Mediation Beyond Borders. He co-leads the Athens Migration Dialogue Project, which helps local communities to design, organize and conduct dialogues that address difficult and dangerous issues, such as … Continue reading Tom Valenti: Using Real Practice Systems Checklists in Practice and Teaching
Brian Farkas has been deeply involved in our field since he was a student at Cardozo, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. He is an attorney at ArentFox Schiff LLP, a prolific author and speaker, and a regular adjunct professor at Cardozo. He is one of the people who … Continue reading Brian Farkas: Using Checklists in My Course on the Law of Settlement
Jeff Trueman is a Maryland mediator who you may recall from my post, Jeff Trueman’s Study on Nightmares of “Positional” Tactics in Mediation. He is one of the people who responded to my request for people to describe how the Real Practice System checklists can be helpful. I said that people could write as little … Continue reading Jeff Trueman: Checklists Are More Important Than I First Thought
