Two years ago, a session was held at the Buenos Aires IBA Annual Conference on the feasibility of creating a set of rules for the mediation of disputes between investors and States. The ICSID Conciliation Rules are broadly acknowledged to be clumsy and have seldom, if ever, been used. For the past...
The second film on the use of facilitated dialogue to ease corporate/community tensions has been posted online. It may be viewed by clicking here....
A recent U.S. District Court opinion has tested the ethical rules barring mediators from representing a party in a subsequent matter that is "identical" or "substantially related" to the mediated matter. It found that, at least in the case before the court, that test had not been satisfied and the...
The irrepresible Michael Leathes is a collector of quotes. Little does he know that one of the early walks I had with him produced a quote of his own that I have always kept pinned on the corkboard of my mind: "It costs no more to think big than to...
In New Jersey, the Superior Court Appellate Division recently approved for publication a decision in which a party to a mediation successfully sought to enforce a settlement agreement reached orally but not commited to writing during the mediation. The objecting party had claimed that (a) the New Jersey Rule pursuant...
If nothing is ever as simple as it looks, then the seemingly simple rules of mediation confidentiality are particularly complex. A group of colleagues was discussing the following hypothetical and could reach no clear conclusion: A mediation session concludes with defendant's counsel agreeing to revert to his (governmental) client to determine if...
There has been an uncharacteristic spate of impasses lately in my practice. Sitting back and examining why, the conclusion might be that one or more of the parties didn't come to the mediation to move ahead to the next stage in their business. They came to it to re-affirm the past, to...