The International Bar Association opens its Annual Meeting on Sunday October 30, 2011, in Dubai with an eagerly anticipated address by Nobel laureate Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei. During the week, the IBA Mediation Committee, under the confident leadership of Babak Barin of Montreal, will offer some robust and discriminating panels.
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. Read more »
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 mediator/attorney was permitted to continue to represent the client. Read more »
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 think small.”
In a characteristically provocative and entertaining article, “Stop Shoveling Smoke!“, Leathes challenges our tolerance of vagueness in defining our own field. Why, he asks, is there no broadly accepted definition of the term “mediation”? Oddly for one so deeply steeped in cross-cultural subtleties, Leathes firmly believes not only that there is a universally applicable definition of “mediation,” but that it can be defined in seven words:
“Consensus facilitated by a trusted neutral person.” Read more »
