Ben Trachtenberg, one of the sharpest faculty at my school, wrote this outstanding article analyzing what went wrong during the highly-publicized controversies at the University of Missouri in 2015. Having lived through this painful conflict, Ben’s account seems extremely accurate – and brings up a lot of sad memories for me, reminding me of things … Continue reading A Case Study of Murphy’s Law in Missouri
You probably know – or at least know of – Forrest (Woody) Mosten. He is the award-winning mediator, lawyer, and peacemaker who is called the “father of unbundling,” referring to the process of offering legal clients discrete services as distinct from a complete bundled representation, as lawyers traditionally provide. He also is a prominent collaborative … Continue reading Mosten and Cordover’s New Collaborative Law Book
I joined the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Publications Board, which recruits people to write books, reviews book proposals, and oversees the Section’s bookselling operation. I came to appreciate the importance of selling the Section’s books, both as a way to help finance the Section and to disseminate our ideas. As part of that effort, … Continue reading The New Handshake: Using ODR to Create Value for Consumers and Businesses
One of the reasons I feel so strongly about the value of the Stone Soup Project is that it inspires us to develop deeper understandings about how conflicts unfold. I have encouraged colleagues to assign students to get detailed accounts of cases from the outset – not focus only on the tail end – because … Continue reading Conflict in Context
Grande Lum, former director of the Community Relations Service (CRS), just published an important article in The Hill newspaper urging Congress to maintain independent funding for the agency. “Historically, CRS has played a significant role in facilitating dialogue, developing constructive relationships, and reducing the possibility of violence. Its mediators and conciliators played a key role … Continue reading Grande Lum’s Article Criticizing Proposal to Effectively Eliminate the Community Relations Service
A recent episode of the Modern Love podcast told the story of a man struggling to deal with conflicting desires of his mother and wife to cook him delicious meals. While having too much good food may not seem problematic, negotiating serially with one’s wife and mother sure can be. This account reveals subtle ways … Continue reading Culinary Negotiation
Our field aspires to promote restorative justice and healing when one person has wronged another. This can truly happen only when the person committing the wrong takes responsibility, typically reflected in an acknowledgment of having done the wrong and an apology. Forgiveness can help people restore themselves as morally acceptable members of society as seen … Continue reading An Example of The Power of Apology and Forgiveness
I have known Forrest (Woody) Mosten for quite a while. He co-authored several articles on collaborative law with me, putting him at risk of tarnishing his stellar reputation. We also co-authored an article, Family Lawyering: Past, Present, and Future. Much more significantly, Woody is known as the “father of unbundling” (as well as being a … Continue reading Mosten and Scully’s New Book on Unbundled Legal Services
Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, director of Creighton’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, Puerto Ricans are Hardly U.S. Citizens. They are Colonial Subjects. It reviews the history of how Puerto Ricans gained US citizenship without self-determination. Click the title of this post to see the link and take a look.
I have written a lot recently about apologies (and non-apologies), most recently a post focusing on Louis C.K.’s apology (which links to prior posts). Today, the New York Times ran a piece entitled “Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.” in which several writers parse the language in the apologies of Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Louis C.K., Kevin … Continue reading Mea Culpa. Kinda Sorta.
