resolving disputes

The following items are tagged resolving disputes.

What to Do Before the Deal Breaks Down

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Whenever one side fails to meet its contractual obligations, renegotiation is more likely to succeed if the parties have a strong relationship. Ideally, the aggrieved party will value long-term relations more than potential gains from a claim for breach of contract. For example, a bank will be more willing to renegotiate a loan with a delinquent debtor when the prospect of future business with the debtor is likely. Bondholders of the same debtor, on the other hand, will generally be more resistant to renegotiation, as they tend to lack opportunities for a profitable future business relationship.

PON co-sponsors negotiation skills training for Israeli and Palestinian students

Posted by & filed under Middle East Negotiation Initiative, Negotiation Skills, Videos.

Thanks to leadership from the Middle East Negotiation Initiative (MENI) of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, a series of negotiation skills trainings was recently provided to eleventh grade students from Jewish and Arab schools in Israel.  These two-day workshops, co-sponsored by the Program on Negotiation and the Amal Network and funded by

David A. Hoffman

Posted by & filed under Affiliated Faculty, PON Affiliated Faculty.

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David A. Hoffman is an attorney, mediator, arbitrator, and founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC. David teaches the Mediation course at Harvard Law School, where he is the John H. Watson Jr. Lecturer on Law, and co-teaches the Mediation course at the Harvard Negotiation Institute of the Program on Negotiation. He has also been the lead trainer in several mediation trainings for the American Bar Association.

Gary J. Friedman

Posted by & filed under Affiliated Faculty, PON Affiliated Faculty.

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Gary J. Friedman has bee practicing law as a mediation with the MEdiation Law Offices in Mill Valley, California, since 1976, integrating meditative principles into the practice of law and the resolution of legal disputes. Through the non-profit organization which he co-founded, The Center for Understanding in Conflict (formerly the Center for Mediation in Law), he has been teaching mediation since 1980.

Is the Devil in the Details?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

You’re close to a deal, but concerns linger. Some of the contract seems less than precise. What in the world does “reasonable best efforts” mean, for example, or “good faith”? Negotiators in this commonplace situation face a choice: push for more precision now or sign the deal and hope the ambiguities won’t cause trouble down the road.

Rapport Comes First

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

How is it that mediators – who themselves lack any power to impose a solution – nevertheless often lead bitter disputants to agreement? Substantive expertise helps, as does keen analytic skill.

According to a recent survey by Northwestern University law professor Stephen Goldberg, veteran mediators believe that establishing rapport is more important than employing specific techniques and tactics.

Mediating Better Community Relations in New Orleans

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

On May 14, Susan Hutson, the independent police monitor for the city of New Orleans brought together community stakeholders and police officials to help formulate a program that would allow police officers and citizens to mediate minor disagreements, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Aided by a professional mediator, citizens and officers would sit face to face with the goal of resolving citizen complaints of police professionalism and courtesy violations, according to Ursula Price, spokeswoman for Hutson’s office. Hutson hopes to launch the fledgling program, which is not yet funded, in 2014. Committee members, including representatives from various community and criminal justice groups, are charged with planning and implementing the program.

Equal Time in Mediation

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Some scientists have long tried to identify the key drivers of success in resolving disputes. Several factors have been proposed: individualized contact that goes beyond the superficial, equal status among parties, commitment to a common goal, and institutional support. Studies have shown that when such conditions are met, parties’ attitudes toward one another often improve.

Other scholars have questioned the significance of such research, however, noting that changes in reported attitudes do not necessarily result in different behavior. This holds true whether the disputants are spouses, neighbors, or a company’s management and its employees.