What Smart Lawyers Know: Building and Maintaining Clients Through Mediation (On-Demand)

Course Description

This seminar is a thought-provoking mixture of infrequently discussed mediation strategies leading to improved practice habits that will transform the way your company or law firm prepares for and conducts mediation. This seminar is designed to improve mediation advocacy and ultimately results for litigators, in-house counsel, and insurance carriers. We identify some of the impediments to success at mediation that can be avoided by proper preparation. This program explains decision-making problems for claimants, multi-party considerations, and all-to-common oversights and anachronistic behaviors by lawyers that may lead to impasse. Commonly held mediation “myths” are debunked. This seminar explores why mediation preparation is historically ineffectual, stresses early mediation, the use of position statements, opening statements, intra-defendant conflicts, close-the-gap end game techniques and the use of non-economic terms in a deal.

Syllabus

1. Mediation advocacy is undervalued by clients and attorneys
2. Core competence in mediation enhances client relationships
3. Mediation advocacy is hugely important to institutional clients
4. Why traditional approaches to mediation fail
5. Debunking mediation myths
6. Use of position statements and opening session