http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog Conflict Management Expertise from F. Peter Phillips Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:30:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm a 60-year old white guy, two years into the terrifying challenge of building a solo practice as a mediator/arbitrator.  And the gist of this post is that more women and people of color need to be hired as neutrals.  I worked hard for this goal when I was Senior Vice President ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/03/adr-needs-more-diversity/ NOTE:  The following text will appear as a chapter in a mediator skills volume to be published soon by the International Bar Association, edited by mediator Patricia Barclay of Bonaccord Ecosse Limited, in Edinburgh, Scotland.                 Reality testing is the technique of inviting a party to adjust his perceptions of the claim.  ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/03/can-you-recognize-when-youre-being-reality-tested/ It's my turn to teach First Day School (what Quakers call Sunday School) for the past few weeks.  And as usual I'm having more fun than the kids are.  The King James Version of the Bible has been a favorite ever since I took Prof. Bond's course on "The Bible ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/the-law-of-damages-and-our-spiritual-traditions/ While working for a company, a guy opens up a competing business and lures away customers.  He is sued by his employer for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.  Prior to trial he participates in a mediation, that is unsuccessful.  At trial he loses and is found liable for $364,000 in ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/mediation-confidentiality-meets-attorney-malpractice/ 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 ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/understanding-interests-means-added-value/ From the invaluable BASESwiki comes news of just the development I and others have pounded the table about:  A long-term project that features a formal and permanent "canary-in-the-mine" that identifies and addresses problems early on, and successfully prevents conflicts. Thirty years ago the Peruvian government expropriated more than 2,000 hectares of land in the High ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/theory-becomes-practice-a-project-with-built-in-conflict-prevention/ Peter L. Michaelson is an attorney specializing in intellectual property, and an arbitrator and mediator of very substantial experience.  He also enjoys cruises to Alaska, which may characterize his "beyond-the-boundaries" attitude when it comes to adding value to clients of ADR processes.  (Pete Michaelson's photo of an Alaskan buffalo, sauntering in ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/arbitrator-selection-how-about-a-compatible-personality/ Two interesting conferences will take place in Virginia during the month of March -- one focusing on investor-state dispute prevention and the other on a variety of challenges and opportunities faced by Virginia mediators. On March 29, 2010, a symposium will be held at Washington and Lee University School of Law, ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/02/in-march-virginia-is-for-adr-lovers/ The Supreme Court granted cert Friday in an employment arbitration case addressing whether the arbitrator or the court should determine the enforceability of an arbitration clause.  The outcome could do mischief to the FAA and to Supreme Court precedent.  Once again there is reason to lament the harm that the practice ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/01/scotus-grants-cert-in-employment-arbitration/ Victoria Pynchon's Settle It Now blog is on my daily list, and a recent post brought to our attention an interesting study on whether, by certain objective standards, attorneys get in the way of mediators' work.   The study was undertaken by three Canadian professors and appears in the January 2010 issue ... http://businessconflictmanagement.com/blog/2010/01/do-attorneys-obstruct-mediations/