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...
The film concerning the use of mediation to resolve generations-old disputes between communities and corporations in Luzon, Philippines, has been completed and released. It is available for free viewing at...
Thanks to the indefatigable Paul Lurie for posting, on his arbitration/mediation Listserve, the news of the recent release of the Annotated Code of Arbitrator Ethics. The Revised Code of Ethics for Arbitrators in Commercial Disputes was released in 2004 by the American Bar Association and the American Arbitration Association. This newly...
The first of three short films on community/corporate relationships, on the Ambuklao/Binga dams in Luzon, is about to be premiered at the United Nations, in Geneva, on June 16. We are also just about finished the second one, concerning the Tintaya mine in Peru. An interesting coincidence has arisen in...
Retired Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil was an innovative, dedicated and creative contributor to the growth of court-connected ADR in the 1990s up until his recent retirement. On June 3, he honored the New Jersey State Bar with a keynote speech at the annual New Jersey "ADR Day," and his remarks...
Jane Gunn's new book is the first ADR volume I have read whose introduction begins "This is not a sex manual!" Well, neither is it a self-help book, nor a reminder of the virtues of candid conversation, nor a refresher on the teachings of the Buddha or Jesus. Yet all that...