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Pepperdine | Caruso School of Law

Strategic Negotiation Skills

Faculty:  Thomas Stipanowich

Lawyers, managers, and other professionals can learn the latest negotiation theories and techniques in this interactive, practical, and entertaining course. Negotiation and Settlement Skills evolved from extensive work with more than 40,000 lawyers and managers in forty states. Building on the empirical data from the fields of business, communication, and psychology, the course utilizes sophisticated simulations and case studies to create a conceptual roadmap for negotiation strategy.

What you will learn:

  • Four stages of negotiation
  • Characteristics of distributive and integrative bargaining
  • Three styles of negotiations
  • Recognition and management of mixed-motive exchange
  • Techniques of competitive and collaborative negotiation
  • Interplay between style and strategy
  • The strength of alternatives in negotiation
  • Negotiation tactics and how to counter them
  • Sources and uses of power
  • Avoiding conflict aftermath
  • The dynamics of multi-party, multi-issue bargaining
  • Evaluation of negotiation success


    Tom Stipanowich holds the William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and is a Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law; as associate dean, he heads the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, which has been ranked first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 13 of the last 15 years. He is the award-winning author of more than 50 books and articles, and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and many other courts. He is also an active arbitrator and mediator and a popular speaker and trainer on mediation, arbitration and dispute resolution who has worked on five continents. Prior to coming to Pepperdine he was a litigator, chaired professor of law, and, from 2001-2006, President and CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute), a Manhattan-based nonprofit think tank supported by many international companies and law firms that developed new insights and tools for managing and resolving business disputes. Stipanowich is the recipient of many honors including the D'Alemberte-Raven Award, ABA Dispute Resolution Section's highest honor (2008), for his contributions to the field, and CPR's James F. Henry Award. Last year he was named Distinguished Professor by the National Law University, Delhi, India—the first non-Indian to be accorded the honor. He will be a featured commentator on a forthcoming five-part documentary on arbitration in China that will be seen on China's national TV, and is expected to be seen by as many as 100 million people. In fall, 2018, he will be a Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies of Texas A&M University, having been jointly nominated by the Colleges of Architecture and Law.