Before you engage in any negotiation, you need to prepare by understanding the issues both from your point of view and your opponent’s. It’s not enough to have a general idea. You need to spend some time on this…

A big interest of mine is art theft and art forgery. Experts estimate that at least 20-50% of the art in the world’s major art museums and on the commercial art market is fake. How could this be?
The Value…

All the necessary parties had gathered for an in-person mediation. But one side said we could not proceed.
“I have just been presented with an expert’s report I have never seen before. I have to depose this expert and probably…

Of course you want to take notes during mediation. You want to record new information as it emerges. You need to keep close track of demands and offers. But participants’ note taking could take away from the value of this…

At every stage in conflict resolution, parties face an array of choices, but they don’t always recognize them.
Can we offer the opposing party more ways to get to an acceptable conclusion? Think of ways to enhance the proposed monetary…

All successful mediations are alike; each unsuccessful mediation is unsuccessful in its own way.
OK, maybe you are more familiar with the actual first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 novel Anna Karenina:
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family…

I see parties in mediation who seem to think the facts and law of their case will magically change. They act like their position is the only tenable one; they give no credence to an opposing view. They don’t prepare…