First, I suggested that trials should be considered as part of (A)DR. Now, my school publishes a symposium on judicial education in our Journal of Dispute Resolution. You might understandably wonder if we have lost our freaking minds. I submit not. Rather, I think that this reflects an evolution of our goals and how we … Continue reading Dispute Resolution Systems and the Future of Our Field
Tis the season of the US News tournament, when our mailboxes fill with literature touting the achievements of law schools far and wide. Most of us think that this “game” is seriously flawed and wish our schools didn’t have play the game, but we generally feel compelled to do so because of the significant consequences. … Continue reading Missouri Scholarship Booklet
Here’s an announcement from my colleague, Carli Conklin. Greetings, colleagues! The Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and the University of Missouri School of Law are hosting a Works-in-Progress Conference on the History of Dispute Resolution, to accompany our November 13, 2015 symposium on arbitration history. We’d love to have you take part! For … Continue reading Call for Proposals: Works-in-Progress Conference on History of Dispute Resolution
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
