Money can’t buy me love. – Paul McCartney As a corollary to psychologist McCartney’s insight, money can’t buy lawyers (much) happiness. That’s one of the key findings of Lawrence Krieger and Kennon Sheldon’s impressive study, What Makes Lawyers Happy?: A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success. This post includes excerpts from this article, sans … Continue reading What Makes Lawyers Happy? – And How Can You Help?
An article in the New York Times, The Rationality of Rage, summarizes the findings of several studies about when expressing anger can be productive. Despite the catchy title of the article, expressing rage generally isn’t helpful. But expressing anger can be useful in some situations. The article distinguishes three types of negotiations – primarily cooperative … Continue reading Good Anger
Life can be darn irritating. In a NYT op-ed piece, Arthur Brooks argues that “When I am working for myself, any disappointing outcome is a stressful, unpleasant reflection on me. When I am serving, on the other hand, the work is always intrinsically valuable because of its intention. Adopting a service mind-set guarantees some measure … Continue reading Satisfaction Through Service
Our own Sarah Cole, Jill Gross, and Andrea Schneider, along with Tim Hedeen and Nancy Welsh, led an excellent session at the ABA conference entitled, “How Being Angry Leads to Good Research.” They said that perceptions of “injustice, bias, discrimination and wrongdoing” have motivated them and others to do valuable research. Jean Sternlight, when accepting … Continue reading Why We Write
Here’s a call for papers from Susan Raines (Kennesaw State), the editor-in-chief of the Conflict Resolution Quarterly (CRQ). CRQ focuses on the role of the neutral in conflict resolution, the processes of conflict resolution, and the causes/cures of conflict at every level from the interpersonal to the international. Our journal prides itself on the importance … Continue reading Conflict Resolution Quarterly Call for Papers
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
Based on my study of lawyers’ actual negotiations, A Framework for Advancing Negotiation Theory: Implications from a Study of How Lawyers Reach Agreement in Pretrial Litigation, I have reluctantly concluded that the generally-accepted understanding of negotiation theory is seriously flawed and that we need a better theory. The current framework relies primarily on two models … Continue reading Problems with the System of Negotiation Models, Part 1
The Washington University School of Law Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute and Negotiation & Dispute Resolution Program (that’s a mouthful) is sponsoring a symposium on international dispute resolution on Friday, Feb. 6, from 8:30 am until noon. The symposium includes panels entitled “International Arbitration and the Cross-Border Deal” and “Mediating International Disputes – An … Continue reading International Dispute Resolution Symposium at Washington University
The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution at St. John’s is pleased to announce a new award for scholarship in the field of ADR. Here’s the notice, with info on nominations: The Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award honors the researcher(s) whose published empirical research has furthered the advancement and understanding of the values and … Continue reading Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award – Call for Nominations
In 1998, commenting on the hot controversy about the “Rand Report’s” finding that certain mediation programs did not save time or money (measured in terms of lawyers’ work hours), Professor Craig McEwen argued that it was the wrong question to ask whether “mediation works.” Critics of the Report had argued that its methodology led to … Continue reading Some Good Questions
