Type: Arbitration, Mediation, and Negotiation Materials
ProductID: 978-1-55681-821-9
Year: 2004
Number of Pages: 468
Author: Abramson, Harold I. Read Table of Contents>
Recipient of 2004 Book Award of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution.
Surprisingly little has been written on how to represent clients in mediation as a problem-solving forum. In this groundbreaking book, Hal Abramson offers a bold, new methodology for problem-solving advocacy—the skills that lawyers are most likely to need in their legal practice.
During mediation, Abramson says, you should negotiate using a creative problem-solving approach to achieve the two goals of meeting your client’s interests and overcoming any impediments to settlement. Your negotiation strategy should take specific advantage of the presence of a mediator at each of the six key junctures in the mediation process.
This mediation formula, Abramson points out, provides a framework for answering such persistent mediation representation questions as: What types of cases are suitable for mediation? How do you approach the other attorney about using mediation without looking weak or desperate? How do you prepare your case and client for mediation?
Abramson begins by discussing how to be an effective negotiator. Mediation, he reminds us, is simply a continuation of the ongoing negotiation. He then explores the mediation process from the vantage point of an advocate, focusing on the different stages of mediation, the function of opening statements, the use of joint sessions and caucuses, and the various approaches and techniques of mediators. The next five chapters cover the knowledge and skills needed to effectively perform four specific roles in mediation representation: advising your clients about the mediation option, negotiating an agreement to mediate with other attorneys, preparing cases and clients for the mediation session, and appearing in the pre-mediation conferences, mediation sessions, and post-sessions. The final chapter presents alternative processes for resolving any remaining issues in the event that the mediation does not result in settling all the issues.
Reviews
“Those of us who have sat across the table from the fist-pounding, shouting advocate who robotically espouses his or her position know the temptation to resort to comparable tactics. Abramson in essence urges a mental deep breath, provides a checklist for recognizing and dealing with the situation, and posits strategies, including using the mediator, to move matters forward."
—New Jersey Lawyer
“Without doubt the best book of its kind, teaching lawyers and law students how to be effective problem solvers and advocates in mediation processes. This book combines all the new learning, scholarship and practice of the essential forms of legal problem solving for justice, effectiveness, mutual gains, and generally good representation in a clear, teachable and practical format. Essential for any course in mediation in any format—law schools, professional trainings–anywhere.”
—Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
“The creative problem-solving approach presented in this excellent book will help every lawyer—from novice advocate to sophisticated negotiator—do a better job representing clients. Combining empirical and academic support for this approach with nuts-and-bolts guidance on how to create and implement a mediation representation plan, this book should be required reading in every law office. It is at Outten & Golden.”
—Wayne Outten, Outten & Golden, New York, NY, mediation advocate and co-founder and former officer of the National Employment Lawyers Association
Contact the Author
Mr. Abramson encourages you to give him feedback or to submit questions by emailing him at:
habramson@tourolaw.edu.
