Law Commons^™

Newsroom: Law Is 'Just Coaching At Heart' 12-1-2016, Marvin Pave, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Lainey Feingold’S Book On Structured Negotiation, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post discusses Lainey Feingold’s book, Structured Negotiation – A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. Lainey is a disability rights lawyer who uses a process for successfully negotiating cases without filing lawsuits. The book is a nuts-and-bolts guide for using her process.

C-Drum News, Fall 2016

The C-DRUM News

No abstract provided.

Bad Decisions To Go To Trial, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes an extreme example of a very common pattern of over-confident litigation risk assessments. Target Corporation was hit with a $4.6 million verdict after rejecting a $12,000 demand on behalf of a child who was stuck with a hypodermic needle in a Target parking lot. Target had offered only $750.

Uncitral And The Enforceability Of Imsas: The Debate Heats Up – Part 4, Anna Howard, Nadja Alexander, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the last of four in a series of blog posts on Kluwer Mediation Blog. They were published in conjunction with the the 65th session of the UNCITRAL Working Group II on arbitration and conciliation. The Working Group has turned its attention to the settlement of commercial disputes and in particular on the preparation of an instrument on the enforcement of international commercial settlement agreements resulting from conciliation. (Note that in UNCITRAL speak, the term ‘conciliation’ is used interchangeably with ‘mediation’. ) In terms of the type of instrument, the Working Group is considering the possibility of a convention, …

Shaping The Agenda 1: Exploring The Competencies, Skills And Behaviours Of Effective Workplace Mediators, Brian M. Barry, Margaret Bouchier, Alec Coakley, Deirdre Curran, James Dillon, Cyril Joyce, Treasa Kenny, Oksana Kokaylo, Louisa Meehan, Genevieve Murray

Reports

This report outlines what is currently known about workplace mediation: its benefits, styles and strategies, its expected outcomes and training challenges. It also identifies an urgent requirement for Irish research in light of the increased promotion of mediation at state level in Ireland. It outlines some international experiences of the difficulties faced in balancing high quality accreditation and regulation with innovation and growth.

Shaping The Agenda 2: Implications For Workplace Mediation Training, Standards And Practice In Ireland, Brian M. Barry, Margaret Bouchier, Alec Coakley, Deirdre Curran Dr, James Dillon, Cyril Joyce, Treasa Kenny, Oksana Meehan, Louisa Meehan, Genevieve Murray

Reports

The Report and its sister report, Shaping the Agenda 1, give a fascinating insight into the world of workplace mediation in Ireland and abroad. It identifies key issues in relation to mediator skills, competencies and behaviours in this sector of mediation. Of enormous significance is the application of this research to the Irish context and specifically to the setting and maintenance of standards of training and practice in relation to workplace mediation. This work has put the MII, as the professional association for mediators in Ireland, in a position to build standards and policies on solid, detailed and considered research, …

When To Turn To Mediation In Telco Disputes, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Ministry of Communications and Information(MCI) proposed the introduction of an alternative dispute resolution schemeto assist telecos and consumers in resolving their disputes. The mediationprocess is likely to be used. In response to this suggestion, Straits Times’ Tech Editor MsIrene Tham questioned whether mediation goes far enough to settle telcodisputes. This op-ed discusses the basic principles involved in the mediation process, as well as when mediation is appropriate and conversely when it is not. Recommendations are made on how to decide on the appropriate mode of dispute resolution for a particular dispute.

Big New Study On Necessary Lawyering Skills, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes the “Foundations of Practice” survey of lawyers which identifies “foundations” that lawyers need soon after graduation. These include communication, emotional and interpersonal intelligence, passion, ambition, professionalism, and other qualities and talents. Almost all of the items on the list refer to personal qualities that law schools don’t emphasize in their curricula. By contrast, law schools focus on things that only small proportions of the lawyers think are necessary soon after graduation.

Negotiation Symposium Virtual Book Club, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

As part of the Tower of Babel Symposium, speakers suggested publications providing useful insights about negotiation. The author conducted conversations with the speakers, which are collected in this post.

Where The “Puck” Is Going – And What Faculty Should Do To Help Students Get There, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes presentations and discussion at a program of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s annual Legal Educators’ Colloquium. The conversation addressed anticipated changes that might affect legal and dispute resolution practice, how practice might change as a result, and how these changes could affect people’s teaching.

Video: Unbundled Legal Representation In Family Law: Ethically Managing The Challenges, Hilary A. Creary Esq., Sheena Benjamin-Wise Esq.

NSU Law Seminar Series

• Understand a lawyer's duty under Fla. Fam. L.R.P. 12.040 "limited appearance"
• Learn how to manage clients when delivering unbundled legal services in a limited representation matter
• How to handle limited representation in various contexts: mediation, domestic violence, and court hearings
• Avoiding ethical violations

Of Grids And Gatekeepers: The Socioeconomics Of Mediation, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Mediation scholars have long debated which mediator “style” or “model” is correct. The origin of the debate arises from a foundational piece of scholarship by Leonard Riskin. Riskin proposed a “grid” of mediator orientations comprised of what came to be known as “facilitative mediation” and “evaluative mediation.” A more recent addition to the grid—and one that is almost universally recognized as a distinct model—is “transformative mediation.” These three models are so embedded in the literature of mediation that they have been called “the big three.” The influence of Riskin’s work cannot be overstated. It has resonated within the community of …

Newsroom: Ap: Chung On 38 Studios Settlement 03-14-2016, Michelle R. Smith, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Logan On Kenneth Feinberg 03-12-2016, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Easy Assignment To Promote Law Students’ Apprenticeship Of Identity, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes an assignment in which students were required to review several law firm websites and write a homepage for the kind of practice that they would like to be part of. The post includes the assignment, which faculty are welcome to use or adapt.

Understanding Your Domestic Relations Rights In Virginia, 2016-2017, Julie Ellen Mcconnell

Law Faculty Publications

The Metropolitan Richmond Women’s Bar Association has published this booklet to help you understand the general legal circumstances that you may face in resolving domestic relations problems under Virginia law. Each person faces unique circumstances that may not be specifically addressed in a broad overview. This booklet is not intended to provide specific advice to you or to address your specific situation. You should use this document only as an introduction to understanding your legal rights.

This booklet is based on laws in effect in Virginia on July 1, 2016. Because laws are always subject to change, you should consult …

Mediation, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

Students will learn and develop skills crucial to the role of mediators and legal professionals. By focusing and implementing mediation methodologies, students will learn skills of active listening and communications; conflict, issue and interests spotting, information gathering and negotiations techniques; problem-solving strategies and approaches; and effective mediation settlement agreement drafting.

Variations On A Theme By Sander: Does A Mediator Have A Philosophical Map?, Sharon Press, Joseph B. Stulberg

Faculty Scholarship

Can a mediator play a constructive role in helping citizens confront and resolve the most divisive issues of our times? We believe the answer is affirmative, but we worry that such a view, though richly grounded in our historical tradition, is now neither widely endorsed nor effectively implemented.

We belong to a group of dispute resolution professionals who learned both from mentors and experience that ADR—and mediation, in particular-offers a philosophical map for conducting problem—solving activities among fellow citizens that systematically supports and advances our most noble aspirations for a fair society. Be it the urban riots of the 1960s …

Trust And The Srba Mediation, Francis E. Mcgovern

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

...Because It’S Not Just About Money, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

When lawyers represent their clients in party-decided dispute resolution processes such as negotiation or mediation, lawyers have a unique opportunity to work with their clients to help shape a comprehensive settlement beyond just a monetary settlement. This is an opportunity to address the client’s human and core concerns and to help their client secure their personalized sense of justice. However, lawyers and mediators who myopically seek to resolve every legal conflict by just monetary resolution are akin to the carpenter who sees everything as a nail because the only tool available is a hammer. This column invites you to …

Clash Of Cultures: Epistemic Communities, Negotiation Theory, And International Lawmaking, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

This Article seeks to illuminate a number of truths about the current deliberations at UNCITRAL by applying the concept of epistemic communities to the UNCITRAL negotiation process. This analysis will help various participants, including state delegates, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), appreciate the dynamics at issue in the treaty deliberations and thereby improve negotiation techniques and outcomes.' In particular, this Article considers how disparities between different epistemic communities involved in the UNCITRAL process could affect the shape and future of the proposed convention and whether the clash of cultures could prove fatal to the development of a new …

The State Courts Centre For Dispute Resolution: Serving The Society With Quality Dispute Resolution Services, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Court Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) has its origins in a 1994 pilot project in the Subordinate Courts (as it was known then) to have selected District Judges assist in resolving civil disputes using ADR processes. Within two decades, Court ADR has been extended to the entire gamut of cases filed in court, including civil claims, minor criminal offences and family disputes. Court ADR services, which have been known as “Court Dispute Resolution”, have become integral to the delivery of justice in the State Courts. As the Honourable The Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon has observed, ADR has been promoted as the …

Finra Dispute Resolution Task Force Releases Its Final Report, With Support For Mediation And Live Hearings, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Late in 2015, the FINRA Dispute Resolution Task Force, a group formed solely for the purpose of systematically assessing and critiquing securities arbitration, released its Final Report and Recommendations. The report contains 51 individual recommendations designed to improve FINRA's heavily-regulated dispute resolution program. Some recommendations offer specific details on implementation; others urge conceptual reform of a particular aspect of the arbitration process but leave FINRA to take care of fleshing out the details.

This article briefly describes the task force's formation; highlights its key recommendations (such as requiring mediation before arbitration of all claims-- subject to party opt-out, and introducing …

Decriminalizing Violence: A Critique Of Restorative Justice And Proposal For Diversionary Mediation, M. Eve Hanan

All Faculty Scholarship

The movement to reduce over-prosecution and mass incarceration has focused almost exclusively on non-violent offenders despite data showing that over half of all prisoners incarcerated within the United States are sentenced for crimes of violence. As a consequence of the focus on nonviolent offenses, the majority of current and future defendants will not benefit from initiatives offering alternatives to criminal prosecution and incarceration.

A discussion of alternatives to the criminal justice system in cases of violent crime must begin by acknowledging that violent crime is not monolithic. Many incidents meet the statutory elements of a violent crime, that is, the …

Alternative Conceptions Of Legal Rhetoric: Open Hand, Closed Fist, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

An open-handed image of rhetoric presents an argument against the closed fist of logic and the “nasty, brutish, and short” depictions associated with legal rhetoric. In 1985, Robert Cover laid bare the field of pain and death where legal interpretation plays itself out in human consequences. Five years later, Gerald Wetlaufer described a landscape of brutal certainty as the backdrop for much of legal rhetoric. And the arena of criminal trials has long been recognizable as a bleak setting within which “[j]ustice determines blame and administers pain in a contest between the offender and the state . . .”

My …

Decriminalizing Violence: A Critique Of Restorative Justice And Proposal For Diversionary Mediation, M. Eve Hanan

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Hanan explores the issues surrounding reforms to the criminal justice system, juveniles, and conflict resolution. She asserts that enthusiasm for restorative justice as the best method of out-of-court dispute resolution in criminal cases should be tempered in favor of mediation, which is neutral because it does not assume that the accused is guilty and that "healing" or repair is warranted. Because decriminalization is not complete and the state retains jurisdiction, Professor Hanan argues for a neutral mediation program, which should (1) function to reduce overall contact with the criminal courts and (2) include procedural safeguards in …

The Hopes And Fears Of All The Years: 30 Years Behind And The Road Ahead For The Widespread Use Of Mediation, Lela P. Love, Ellen A. Waldman

Articles

Looking through the windshield in 1985, the dispute resolution community was enthusiastic about mediation's promise: the promise of a radically different paradigm premised on party-driven resolution and collaborative decision-making. Peering ahead, mediation's pioneers anticipated a quiet revolution in conflict management toward more therapeutic and democratic processes. What do events in the last three decades tell us about the high and low points — the successes and failures — in the journey of that endeavor? Looking forward, how might we best align reality with our highest aspirations and avoid the disappointing troughs we encountered in those past decades? This article addresses …

The Scrivener's Dilemma In Divorce Mediation: Promulgating Progressive Professional Parameters, Robert K. Collins

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Language Interpretation In Providing A Quality Mediation Process, Alexandra Carter, Shawn Watts

Faculty Scholarship

This paper focuses on the role of language in mediation and the challenges multiple language fluencies bring to the practice. Beginning with a discussion of the process and ethics of mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution, as distinct from other forms of dispute resolution including arbitration, the paper shifts to consider the importance of language. Language, and more specifically interpretation, plays a central role in the integrity of the mediation process and the quality of its outcomes. Each stage of mediation requires the participants and the mediator understand one another to ensure effective communication and a quality process. …