Law Commons^™

Merging Mediation Models – And Other Lessons, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post offers suggestions for teaching about mediation practice without focusing primarily on the problematic traditional mediation theories described in Section 3.C. It suggests that faculty (1) help students understand dynamics related to assessments of court outcomes, (2) teach students to strategically combine elements from the traditional models, (3) teach them how to manage the counteroffer process, (4) include lawyer-client relationships in simulations, and (5) use longer simulations including preparation for mediation sessions.

Lira In Criminal Cases, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes how the LIRA framework can be adapted in criminal cases and used in plea bargaining. It suggests how to calculate and use bottom lines in these cases.

Concepts That Can Help Practitioners Help Parties Make Decisions In Disputes, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

A fundamental purpose of dispute resolution practitioners is to help people make decisions about processes, procedures, and issues in managing their conflicts. This post lists concepts to help people make decisions about the choice of dispute resolution process, specific procedures in a given process, and resolving issues in dispute. In resolving disputes, people should consider the value of plausible options and the future tangible costs and intangible costs and interests of continuing the dispute. The post lists specific cognitions, possible actions, and practitioner interventions promoting good decision-making.

Problems With Teaching “Integrative” Negotiation, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post responds to Debra Berman’s piece, Is Our Over-Emphasis on Integrative Negotiation Pedagogy Falling Short of Reality? My answer is “yes.” Much – perhaps most – negotiation and mediation of civil cases these days in the US involves a counteroffer process where lawyers focus almost exclusively on allocating money based on a zero-sum assumption. So if our courses focus too much on interests-and-options processes, students get a misimpression about the frequency of what happens in the real world. If we don’t prepare them to operate effectively in practice, they will be in for a rude surprise after they graduate. …

A Message For Law Students To Prepare Themselves For Legal Practice, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post includes suggestions to help plan self-directed learning to supplement what students learn in law school. It recommends that students (1) appreciate the values and limitations of the law, (2) recognize the “hidden curriculum” in law school, (3) understand that “thinking like a lawyer” really is about helping clients achieve their goals, (4) develop a strategic plan for their education, (5) compile a portfolio, (6) take clinical, externship, and practice courses, (7) interview practitioners, and (8) join the ABA and other bar and professional associations.

You Really Should Know About Kris Franklin, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post profiles New York Law School Professor Kris Franklin. She teaches a negotiating, counseling, and interviewing course, which she says really should be called “Client Representation and Case Handling.” Her course on family law practice teaches all the family law doctrine covered in traditional family law courses but she does it exclusively using simulations. In contrast to my suggestion for renaming law school as “negotiation school,” she suggests calling it “legal problem-solving school,” which I think is even better.

Study Finds That Law Schools Fail To Prepare Students To Work With Clients And Negotiate, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post provides excerpts from the Building a Better Bar study about new law school graduates’ unmet instructional needs. The study found that new lawyers were “woefully unprepared” to work with clients. They had difficulty (1) communicating with clients, (2) managing expectations, (3) breaking bad news, (4) coping with difficult clients, (5) negotiating with counterparts and clients, and (5) understanding the “big picture” of client matters.

Need For Clear Language Initiative To Un-Babel Our Models, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

Professional jargon is helpful in some fields because it promotes communication between professionals like brain surgeons and rocket scientists.

But jargon is extremely problematic for dispute resolution because it confuses and excludes laypeople and other stakeholders.

Jeff Trueman’S Study On Nightmares Of “Positional” Tactics In Mediation, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post reports on an excellent study about the challenges of lawyers, mediators, and insurance claims professionals in mediation. His findings are consistent with my observations about the emotional pains of positional negotiation. Many of the cases in his study involve insurance, which are supposedly “money-only cases” because the parties generally haven’t had a prior relationship and have no interest in a future relationship. But Jeff found that emotions and relationships actually can be very important in these cases – the professionals’ emotions and relationships with each other.

Donna Shestowsky’S Presentation On Litigants’ Views Of Court Adr Options, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post hightlights findings from Donna Shestowsky’s research finding that litigants seem to be unaware of ADR options, and that knowing about some of these options improves their opinions of the court itself. Surprisingly, having a lawyer did not make litigants more aware of ADR options, even when those options were offered by the court system.

They Should Call It Negotiation School, Not Law School, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

Considering that lawyers spend much more time negotiating than going to trial, I offered suggestions for fundamentally reorganizing law school curricula and policies. This somewhat mischievous thought experiment includes ideas that are too radical for any law school to consider given the deeply entrenched institutionalization of legal education. But it is useful to ponder how law schools generally do a poor job of preparing students for the reality of practice and how schools might reform their curricula to do a better job.

Transactional Interest And Risk Assessment, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes how the LIRA can be adapted for transactional negotiations.

What’S A Bottom Line?, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

During the life cycle of a case, lawyers start with vague and tentative bottom lines, and they develop more precise and confident bottom lines as the case progresses. People typically are not candid with others – and sometimes even with themselves – about their real walkaway point (or “trip wire”) for ending negotiations. Indeed, “bottom line” claims are standard negotiation gambits using wildly inflated numbers that experienced negotiators and mediators routinely assume to be false.

Batna May Be Less Important Than You Think – And Teach, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

When bargaining in the shadow of the law, the expected court outcome (aka BATNA value) is only part of the more important consideration for negotiators – their bottom lines.

Lira Videos, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post collects lots of videos of presentations I gave about LIRA.

Batnas And The Emotional Pains From “Positional Negotiation", John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes the role of BATNAs in the “positional negotiation” game, pains that it causes people in many roles, and some remedies to avoid and reduce these pains. In this “game,” each side seeks to maximize its outcome by starting with extreme positions and then making a series of counteroffers. Each side concocts stories justifying their positions but everyone knows that these stories are exaggerations at best and fibs at worst. If you gave truth serum to the lawyers, they would admit that they don’t really believe their own arguments.

But they do it because “everybody does it.” It’s …

Addressing The Class Claim Conundrum With Online Dispute Resolution, Amy J. Schmitz

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Description

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

International Arbitration As Comparative Law In Action, Joshua Karton

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Mediation Of Investor–State Disputes: A Treaty Survey, Kun Fan

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

International Dispute System Design: Shoals And Shifting Goals, Janet Martinez

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

International Dispute Resolution And Access To Justice: Comparative Law Perspectives, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

The Reception Of Collective Actions In Europe: Reconstructing The Mental Process Of A Legal Transplantation, Csongor István Nagy

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Or Voluntary Mediation? Recent Turkish Mediation Legislation And A Comparative Analysis With The Eu’S Mediation Framework, Ash Gurbuz Usluel

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

A Break In The Cycle: Applying Adr Principles To Inner–Prison Conflicts, Eli Dodge

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Faculty List

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Dispute Resolution

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Comparative Law And International Dispute Resolution Processes: Looking Forward, Looking Back, S. I. Strong

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Comparative Method And International Litigation, Ronald A. Brand

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.