Business Conflict Blog

Hans Peter Frick, General Counsel of Nestlé, once offered this guidance for business mediators:  You can either make what you think is a good candy bar and convince people that they “ought to” buy it, or you could go out and ask people what kind of candy bar they want, and go back and make it.

At the IBA in Vancouver, Jane Player of Bird & Bird gave attendees a chance to learn from global companies what kind of candy bar they like: How they consider ADR to add value (or not) in their businesses.  Representatives of General Electric, Swiss Re, Coca-Cola and E.I. duPont spent three hours in conversation among themselves and a the audience of a packed hall discussing relationship management, conflict avoidance, mediation, risk assessment, early case assessment and litigation management as ways to add value to their shareholders.

Candy, anyone?                                  Read more »

Tags: conflict management, Employment, Mediation, systems design

Last year’s IBA meeting in Madrid was an exciting time for those interested in dispute resolution around the world.  The current issue of Mediation News, the newsletter of the IBA Legal Practice Division, contains an article by me summarizing several but by no means all of the insightful sessions.  This year’s gathering in Vancouver on October 3-9 promises no less. Read more »

Tags: conflict management, Mediation

In preparation for next week’s Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, I have been delighted to get to know a group of judges who will be offering a program on Saturday afternoon, August 7, on the use of ADR in Business Courts.  One of them, Judge Steven I Platt of Maryland, maintains an interesting blog to which he has recently contributed a thoughtful article on the “why” of dispute resolution in business courts. Read more »

Tags: Add new tag, ADR, conflict management, Courts, Public Policy

Arbitrators, mediators, lawyers, ADR trainers and professors have many excellent guides to assist them in doing their job.  But what about the guy inside the company who has a cross-border dispute on his hands and needs to deal with it with intelligence, elegance and efficiency?  Or at least not flub it?  Two deeply experienced lawyers have come to the rescue.

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Tags: conflict management