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Chasing Excellence in Mediation: Tactics, Strategies and Dialogue with Attorney Advocates and Mediators

Faculty: Tracy Allen and Eric Galton 

Based on their extensive experience and research, Allen and Galton will lead a master class on the Long Overdue Advanced (or Difficult) Mediation Conversation: Taking Attorney- Advocates and Mediators to the Next Level (lessons and advanced tips from the ever-evolving mediation market). This highly interactive course is designed for the experienced advocate who frequently attends mediations and for the experienced commercial mediator. All participants will engage in dialogue and learning exchanges on the current landscape of the business and what the market and decision makers seem to want from mediators and attorney-advocates.

Advocates and Their Clients

  • What do/should attorneys tell their clients about the mediator and the mediation process? Architectural process design considerations for the clients: whose job is it?
  • Tactics and irritants in negotiation: why attorneys employ them, whether clients expect them, and whether they result in better outcomes for the clients.
  • Are nonmonetary solutions an illusion? Do advocates know their clients' interests and needs?
  • Do lawyers game the mediation to set up brackets, mediator proposals, intentional impasses? Are there other strategies and tools to advance negotiations midstream besides these tired techniques?

Advocates and Mediators

  • Is the mediator an educator? An architect? A negotiation coach?
  • A mediator's suggestiveness: tactics to recommend, invoke, or reject.
  • Do/should mediators (purposefully) cause or create impasse(s) in negotiations?
  • Can a mediator be too coercive? Is it unethical for a mediator to advance or impose his or her true opinion? Do advocates resent or value the mediator's uninvited, involuntary opinion?
  • What's the difference between deception, manipulation, and untruths?
  • What inadvertent moves do advocates make in negotiations that create ethical conundrums for a mediator?
  • The market's effect on the business of advocates and mediators: what can be done about it?

We invite you to join your instructors in this deep dive into what's really happening in the mediation market and how to remain relevant to users, providers, and decision makers.

Tracy L. Allen is a full-time mediator, arbitrator and ADR trainer. She teaches and practices internationally, providing conflict management, prevention, and training services worldwide. A former tax and business attorney, Allen mediates and arbitrates complex and highly emotional commercial, business, probate, securities, and employment cases. She is a Distinguished Fellow, Dame, and a past president of the International Academy of Mediators. She has written numerous articles and is a contributing author in several books on ADR, with emphasis on mediation and negotiation strategies. She received the State Bar of Michigan ADR Section Distinguished Service Award in 2008 and currently serves on several specialty ADR provider panels nationally and internationally. Allen is an adjunct professor in the College of Leadership and Public Service at Lipscomb University and the Institute of Continuing Legal Education at the University of Michigan. Allen is the owner of her Detroit-based resolution firm, Global Resolutions, PLLC.

Eric R. Galton is a full-time mediator, arbitrator, and lecturer. Galton's book, Mediation: A Texas Practice Guide, received the Center for Public Resources Annual Book Award. He has since authored four more books with his most recent work, Ripples from Peace Lake. Galton is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and the Texas Academy of Attorney-Mediators. He is a member of the Texas State Bar ADR Section and has served on the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section, and the board of directors for the Texas Association of Mediators. He has practiced law for 30 years, and is currently a partner in the mediation firm Lakeside Mediation and the law firm of Galton, Cunningham & Bourgeois, a purely dispute resolution and mediation firm in Austin, Texas.