In a mediation not long ago, one of the parties was a car dealership, and their client representative was the sales manager. During the day, I asked him what he thought about how the day was going – what his …
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned yesterday was wrong. Whether it is in trial or in mediation, it’s dynamic – we don’t really know what the next pitch is going to be. What …
The two rules of attorney client relations.
Rule 1: The client is always right. Rule 2: If the client is wrong, refer to rule 1. Now I know, that may sound a little facetious. But let’s get back to basics – lawyers don’t have clients, clients have …
Mediation thoughts: “Never take a hostage you are not willing to shoot.”
Mediations are negotiations – and in negotiations, drawing lines is sometimes the final step. (More often, it is an almost final step.) But what happens if you draw a line, and the other side crosses it? Well, if you let …
Mediation thoughts: “If you aren’t at the table, you are probably on the menu.”
Often, parties who are somewhat peripheral to a dispute in litigation learn of a mediation among the actual parties. They may be invited to it or just clued in by serendipity. However it happens, they should be considering the question, …
The three most important things clients should remember about working with a lawyer.
You are the boss. Your lawyer works for you and doing what you want is more important than what he or she thinks (or wants). Like our doctors, we appreciate the professional training and experience our lawyers have. But it’s …