First and foremost, I want to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. May 2015 bring you only joy and peace! Each year, I find it interesting to look through the new laws enacted by the California legislature to see if my tax dollars were well spent. [Read More]
The holidays are upon us, and with them come the usual stress and tension that family events often bring. Over Thanksgiving, I had an experience that put it in perspective for me. Although I am supposed to be the conflict resolution person, it was a cousin that gave me a [Read More]
Either as a participant in a mediation or as the mediator, we have all learned the cardinal rule that mediations are confidential both in terms of the statements and other communications made during the mediation and the information the mediator keeps to herself, not sharing it with the other parties. [Read More]
No doubt, you have read some interesting book or article and the next thing you know, it is playing out in real life. Well, this blog is about just that. I am still trying to muddle through Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, [Read More]
Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. And while we will all give thanks for the many blessings that we have, I thought I would share some of the lesser known, but interesting facts about our national holiday. (Spoiler alert: This blog has absolutely nothing to do with mediation!) As we all [Read More]
There is an old adage, "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" And indeed, many of us do just that because time is a precious commodity of which there is never enough. As a result, we address the issues or tasks that are the most pressing, figuring [Read More]
The other day, I conducted two mediations between the same plaintiff's counsel, the same defendants and their counsel. The only different party in the two mediations was the plaintiff. One mediation was to start in the morning and the next in early afternoon, figuring each would take about 3 hours. [Read More]
Once again, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School published an interesting article. This time it is about the "rules" that the New York City Police Hostage Negotiators live by to defuse the very stressful crises with which they deal almost daily. What strikes me about the "rules" is [Read More]
