Giuseppe de Palo and I first met in 1999 or 2000, when I was bowled over the first time I learned about his work with The ADR Center in Rome. Since that time, every occasion I meet Giuseppe I am reminded what a powerhouse of talent, ambition, energy and aspiration he is. Both his intellect and his physical energy make having a cup of coffee like saying hi to a tornado. His recent e-mail proves no exception. Read more »
A recent article has been making the rounds of ADR professionals. The current issue of the American Psychological Association’s publication Psychology, Public Policy and Law (Vol. 16, No. 2, at 133-57) features a report of a study conducted by a group of scholars from Australia, Sweden and the United States. The group canvassed 481 American attorneys – in civil and criminal cases, both plaintiffs/prosecutors and defense – and found that lawyers are prone to overconfidence. That is, they predict outcomes of their cases that are not only erroneous, but generally too optimistic.
I’m wondering why this is news. I think that we mediators have known this all along; in fact, that’s why we’re hired. Read more »
In 1999, CPR Institute published Kathleen Scanlon’s volume Mediator’s Deskbook. It was (and still is) a terrific book, subsequently translated into Japanese and Chinese, but alas out of print after 11 years. 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.”
In the decade since Mediator’s Handbook was published, the mediation library has grown to a scale Jim Henry could not have imagined. These include not only excellent books, like Richard Shell’s Bargaining for Advantage and Ben Picker’s Mediation Practice Guide, but casebooks like Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s Mediation, practical innovations like Steve Brams’ The Win-Win Solution, compilations like Russ Bleemer’s Mediation Approaches and Insights, periodicals like the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Dispute Resolution Magazine, web sites like Mediate.com, and blogs like… well, modesty forbids!
I told my wife that I wanted to do the following exercise with my 50-person ADR survey class at New York Law School:
“Find a partner and face each other. Touch your palms together about face-level and then grasp each other’s hand. The person who can get the other person’s hand past their own ear five times in the next fifteen seconds gets a hundred bucks.”
My wife’s response: “Don’t do that! They’ll hurt each other! Say ‘No hurting’ or ‘Be careful of each other’ or something like that!” Read more »