This past week, I taught my last class for the semester at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law. The online course entitled Employment Dispute Mediation teaches the students how to mediate "from soup to nuts." Many of the students are Human Resource (HR) professionals, which makes my [Read More]
Last week, I conducted a lemon law mediation which highlighted a very valuable lesson. People need to be heard, acknowledged, and told that what they are saying has merit. The plaintiff leased a luxury automobile. At one point, she brought it into the dealership after the check engine light came [Read More]
This semester, I will be co-teaching a course in negotiation. To prepare, I read the three assigned textbooks on the subject over the holidays. What struck me but not as a surprise, is that each author emphasized the importance of preparing for the mediation. None of them suggests simply walking [Read More]
The last mediation I conducted in 2021 did not result in a resolution. There were a number of reasons why which I could not quite put my finger on. But over the holidays I read some books on negotiation which helped to crystallize my thinking. One of the books, Bargaining [Read More]
Last week’s mail brought a Los Angeles County Superior Court Jury Summons by which I am ordered to be available in March for civil jury trials at the main civil courthouse in downtown Los Angeles ….in the middle of a pandemic. Needless to say, due to the surge of the [Read More]
