Negotiation Workshop A (LAW 44100A)
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
WINTER/SPRING 2013
Instructor:
Robert Mnookin
Hauser 416
617-495-1684
Most lawyers, irrespective of their specialty, must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trials. Business lawyers — whether putting together a start-up company, arranging venture financing, or preparing an initial public offering — are called upon to negotiate on behalf of their clients. Public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, government attorneys, criminal lawyers, tort lawyers, and commercial litigators all share the need to be effective negotiators.
This Workshop, by combining theory and practice, aims to improve both the participants’ understanding of negotiation and their effectiveness as negotiators. Drawing on work from a variety of research perspectives, the readings and lectures will provide students with a framework for analyzing negotiations and tools and concepts useful in negotiating more effectively. Participants will spend much of their time in a series of negotiation exercises and simulations, where as negotiators and critical observers, they will become more aware of their own behavior as negotiators and learn to analyze what works, what does not work, and why.
The Workshop is intensive and time-consuming. Participants should have no other work commitments during the winter term. Specifically, participants should be available each day from 9:00am until 5:00pm (although class will often end earlier). There will be simulations and videotaping on some evenings and some weekends. Class attendance is essential and required at all sessions including the evening and weekend sessions. Students may not take the Workshop if they have other courses that conflict with the daily hours or with any other significant obligation during the winter term. There will be no classes during the spring term.
The Workshop will be limited to 144 students who will be divided into six working groups of 24 each.
LL.M., and cross-registrant students may apply online (http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/hnm cp/web/indexed54.html?option=com_content&view=arti cle&id=107&template=students) for the workshop. The deadline to apply is noon on Monday, October 17.
Plenary sessions of the full class will be devoted to demonstrations, discussion problems, lectures, video and film. Much of the time devoted to exercises and simulations will take place in the smaller working groups, each of which will be led by an experienced instructor and a teaching assistant.
In addition to participating in the daily activities, students will be expected to keep a journal and write a short paper. The journal is submitted weekly. This course has no final examination and will end several weeks before the end of the spring semester in light of the intensity of the Workshop during the term.
During the first week of the Workshop, JD and LL.M. students will be given an opportunity to elect to take the Workshop on a credit/fail basis. For cross-registrants, the availability of the credit/fail option is dependent on the policies of their home school.
Please note: The Workshop has an early drop deadline of November 16, 2012. The course may not be dropped after November 16, 2012 without the written permission of the instructor.
