
Workshop
Lawyers have traditionally seen mediation as a method to facilitate competitive bargaining. In this view, a mediator’s primary role is to carry offers back and forth between the parties and shield them from the impact of each other’s hard tactics. When such bargaining breaks down, the mediator can meet separately with parties and access confidential information that may be critical for building consensus. To do that, each mediator needs to find a balance between building trust by listening empathically and discussing risk by reality testing. A good mediation advocate should be able to work with the mediator to find that balance.
Mediators have power. They cannot compel parties to settle, but they can influence the process of bargaining. Wise lawyers take advantage of this. As one mediator remarked about a litigator, a note of admiration in his voice, “He moved me around like a chess piece!“. Indeed, good mediators are like chessboard knights; they have many capabilities, and attorneys can use them to advance their bargaining strategies.
Mediators can enhance a lawyer’s ability to negotiate in many ways. A mediator can, for example, improve communication between parties by conveying messages or explaining what an offer means (“Tell them we are at €25.000 but are prepared to talk seriously once they drop their claim to future profits.”). Mediators can also provide information about the attitude of an opponent (“Has the plaintiff become any calmer since we met this morning?“) and can arrange informal discussions (“I think it would be helpful if we set up a private discussion between the two CFOs.“)
Mediation advocates can use mediation to pursue both competitive and cooperative negotiation strategies. Thus, for example, lawyers can make an extreme opening offer in mediation with less risk than if they used the same tactic in direct bargaining. This is because they can rely on the mediator to cushion the tactic’s impact (“scrape the other side off the ceiling“). Lawyers can also use mediation to support creative approaches, for example, by pressing a claim for money while privately asking the mediator to explore whether the other side is open to repairing a business relationship.
Particularly toward the end of the process, lawyers will likely find themselves in a three-sided negotiation, bargaining with the other party and the mediator. Advocates can negotiate, for example, about whether the mediator uses a specific technique (“Before we would discuss liability, I’d appreciate it if you would let each side make another offer“) or can request that the mediator uses a tactic (“Why don’t you suggest to both sides that they … ?“). Attorneys cannot expect a mediator to take sides in a dispute, but if a tactic is neutral, the mediator may follow a lawyer’s suggestion to use it.
The key lesson is not to approach the process passively but instead to use the mediation process in an active way to advance your client’s interests.
Based on the ADR Center’s mediation experience with attorneys worldwide, this workshop offers suggestions about how lawyers can use the mediation process to achieve optimal outcomes.
Mediation is an active process which is capable of almost infinite variation. Good lawyers know that a mediator can help them bargain more effectively and take the initiative to ask a mediator for help. By doing so, they can achieve better outcomes for their clients.
The mediation advocacy workshop demonstrates how mediation is most successful when the parties’ advocates/advisors are knowledgeable and skilled in the principles of the mediation process and negotiation theories. It provides arguments regarding how mediation can fail when party representatives act as if they were in a courtroom rather than in a negotiation.
The participating advocates will see that mediation presents unique problem-solving opportunities in which representatives can assist their clients in reaching faster, more cost-effective and better outcomes with the assistance of a mediator. They can help their clients achieve results that may be unattainable in a courtroom or arbitration tribunal. But to do that, they need a different set of knowledge and skills.
The first session will include an overview of the mediation process. The participants will have an opportunity to introduce themselves, and then they will engage in practical activities that will highlight the difference between third-party roles in adversarial and collaborative processes. Participants will learn about where mediation is placed in the larger spectrum of conflict management processes.
The second session will focus on the principles of mediation and how they can be applied in practice. To this end, participants will be able to observe a demonstration of a mediation session. This experience will expose them to the “feel and look” of a mediation environment, the general approach of a mediator, and, more importantly, what lawyers can do to improve the outcome of the process.
The remaining two sessions will follow the chronology of the mediation process, the preparation stage to the resolution of the dispute and reflect the specific knowledge and skills for effective mediation advocacy.
Each session will have minimal presentations and, instead, will provide plenty of opportunities for discussions, questions and answers.
4 CLPD points will be awarded upon successful completion of this course.
Please email us (academy@adrcenter.com) for further details.
08:30 – 09:00 |
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| Registration |
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09:00 – 10:15 | SESSION #1 THE MEDIATION OVERVIEW |
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| · Welcome, goals and presentation of trainers, introduction of participants |
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| · The fundamental choice: To talk or to fight? |
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| · Overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) |
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| Break |
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10:30 – 11:45 | SESSION #2 FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND THEIR APPLICATION |
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| · Systemic and psychological barriers to settlement. |
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| · Overview of Mediation (definition and practices in the Emirates) |
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| · Overview of Mediation (principles, mediation advocacy for lawyers) |
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| · Case study: “The Case of the Mule Kaslaan” presentation |
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| Lunch Break |
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12:30 – 13:30 | SESSION #3 EFFECTIVE PREPARATION AND REPRESENTATION IN MEDIATION |
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| · What do you do as a mediation advocate to prepare before the mediation? |
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| · The stages of the mediation process: ADR Center 5×5 matrix |
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| · Practical activity: mediation advocacy applied for the case study |
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| Break |
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13:45 – 15:30 | SESSION #4 DEMONSTRATION OF EFFECTIVE MEDIATION ADVOCACY |
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| · Application of principles: Demonstration of a mediation process |
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| · Plenary discussion |
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| · Wrap up. Presentation of certificates. Group picture. |
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The faculty of ADR Center Academy includes highly experienced mediators and trainers mostly from ADR Center’s international panel with years of experience in the field of ADR and a proven track record of successfully mediating complex cross-border disputes as well as designing and delivering training courses all over the world. Our trainers are, in fact, highly skilled professionals of different nationalities with a multicultural professional background and the ability to work alongside people with different cultures. All our trainers fluently speak English in addition to one or more languages in order to design and conduct an international training program. The trainers of ADR Center Academy have a combined experience of training more than 15.000 mediators around the world.
This course will be led by Leonardo D’Urso and Constantin-Adi Gavrila, from ADR Center.
Enroll now to secure one of the limited seats in ADR Center’s ‘Mediation Advocacy for Lawyers’ Workshop:
We want you to be 100% confident when you enroll in ADR Center International Accredited Mediator Training. You’re protected with our 100% risk-free money back guarantee until attending the first two live sessions. This 100% risk-free money back guarantee was appreciated by more than 15.000 mediators that we have trained all over the world.
Please email us for further details.
For information: academy@adrcenter.com or fill out the form below
Contact
ADR Center Srl – Società Benefit
Headquarters
Via Marcantonio Colonna, 54
00192 – Rome
Tel. +39 06 36 09 37
Email: academy@adrcenter.com
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