{"id":567,"date":"2010-05-04T16:11:19","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T20:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/?p=567"},"modified":"2010-05-04T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T20:11:19","slug":"dwight-golanns-new-book-on-mediating-legal-disptes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/dwight-golanns-new-book-on-mediating-legal-disptes\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwight Golann's Book on "Mediating Legal Disputes""},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1999, CPR Institute published Kathleen Scanlon’s <\/a>volume Mediator’s Deskbook.<\/em>\u00a0 It was (and still is) a terrific book, subsequently translated into Japanese and Chinese, but alas out of print after 11 years.\u00a0 James Henry, CPR’s founder and president, thought of it as “the well-thumbed paperback that every mediator leafs through on the way to the mediation.”<\/p>\n

In the decade since Mediator’s Handbook<\/em> was published, the mediation library has grown to a scale Jim Henry could not have imagined.\u00a0 These include not only excellent books, like Richard Shell’s Bargaining for Advantage<\/a> and Ben Picker’s Mediation Practice Guide<\/a>, but casebooks like Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s Mediation<\/a>, practical innovations like Steve Brams’ The Win-Win Solution<\/a>, compilations like Russ Bleemer’s Mediation Approaches and Insights<\/a>, periodicals like the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Dispute Resolution Magazine<\/a>, web sites like Mediate.com<\/a>, and blogs like… well, modesty forbids!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is therefore with awareness of its implications that I propose Dwight Golann’s book, Mediating Legal Disputes<\/a>, to be as good a single volume for mediators as any, and far better than nearly all.<\/p>\n

Much of the scope of the book is as one would imagine:\u00a0 structuring a mediation, conducting general sessions and caucuses, proper administrative attention, dealing with radical first offers, psychological obstacles to bargaining, and so on.\u00a0 But there are very few writers who are as gifted as Prof. Golann in making sure that nothing is missed out, yet all is cleanly and simply presented.\u00a0 Moreover, what is particularly cool about this volume is the inclusion of a DVD in the back, showing Prof. Golann and Marjorie Corman Aaron handling various stages of a commercial mediation\u00a0by way of illustrating points made in the book.\u00a0 So, for example, you read a section of the text on seeking out parties’ hidden agendas, and then read: “For examples of exploring non-legal issues, see Chapters 5 and 9 of the DVD.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

And scrumptious those DVD chapters are!\u00a0 This could have been a risk, had the DVD been unprofessionally produced or amateurishly acted.\u00a0 But…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prof. Aaron co-authored Chapter 8 of the book, titled “Merits Barriers: Evaluation and Decision Analysis,” and I believe that the 15-page discussion of decision analysis (“decision trees”) is the most cogent, plain, and easy to understand of anything I’ve read on the subject.\u00a0\u00a0Risk analysis\u00a0is a skill that is grossly underused by advocates, neutrals, judges and clients.\u00a0 Here it’s set forth so well that even Dartmouth English majors like me can get it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 18 months ago I read an article by Prof. Golann on tools for breaking impasse, and it so impressed me that I summarized its ideas on a single sheet of paper and carry that summary with me to every mediation I conduct.\u00a0 The main ideas in that article appear in Chapter 9 of this book.\u00a0 That Chapter alone is worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

My advice of neutrals and advocates;\u00a0 Run, don’t walk.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dwight Golann<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dwighht Golann has combined the wisdom of an experienced mediator with the pedagogic skills of a practice professor to yield perhaps the best and most useful volume for mediators in a crowded market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,26],"tags":[15,27,28],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mediation","category-teaching","tag-mediation","tag-teaching","tag-training"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.businessconflictmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}