April 02, 2011
Consensual Dispute Resolution (CDR): A New Label for Facilitative Lawyering
In the past couple of years, the term Consensual Dispute Resolution has developed in the legal community as a way of differentiating certain legal services...
February 14, 2011
Mediation and Collaborative Practice: Speed of Process v. Quality of Resolution
One of the benefits of working out your divorce or probate matter in a non-adversarial process like mediation or Collaborative Practice is that the people...
January 25, 2011
Family Disputes: Will A Legal Outcome Be The Best Outcome?
When we find ourselves in a dispute with our spouse, or sibling, or anyone else, we often want to talk to a lawyer to find...
December 03, 2010
Happy Holidays: Experiencing the Virtues
It’s winter and our thoughts turn to the various holidays and the turn of the year. Almost everyone enjoys some ritual celebrating the mood of...
October 11, 2010
From Thailand: Choosing Peace Is A Full-time Job For Us All
Some people think that mediators, as fonts of sage notions of compromise, virtue, and peace, walk around following their own advice all the time. My...
September 15, 2010
Turn About Is Fair Play: How I Came to Never Judge My Clients
An old client recently pointed out to me that I write about my clients in my blog. Now that may not sound like a thought...
June 28, 2010
Letting Go of Conflict: The Necessary Step
People in conflict have three options open to them: stay in conflict (e.g., I'm right / you're an idiot) surrender the conflict to another (e.g.....
May 28, 2010
A Hard Truth of the Mediation Process: It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings
Recently I had two sessions in a matter of days where one person during each session said basically the same thing to me, “We’re not...
April 28, 2010
Mediation and Collaborative Practice: What About The Law?
The role of the law in mediation and Collaborative Practice is a frequent discussion among divorce professionals, and I had the pleasure of addressing this...
February 28, 2010
Focusing on Peace – A Matter of Perspective
When my father died unexpectedly this past Christmas, I looked at his life from that wide perspective that death often gives us. My dad was...