Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution and Law Practice

This training examines how obvious and not-so-obvious cultural differences impact resolution of interpersonal and interstate (international) disputes. Specifically, this training will bring a global perspective to understanding the impact of culture on legal negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and law practices.

This training will provide practical tools to attorneys and mediators on how to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. It will cover common cross-cultural mistakes, how to build trust and effective communication across cultural boundaries, and how to develop rapport with cross-cultural clients.

This course is designed to build theoretical knowledge, to equip participants with an analytical framework useful in determining suitable dispute resolution processes, and to instill practical skills and strategies to enhance effectiveness in cross-cultural contexts. Cultural differences in language, customs, values, legal systems, and worldviews will be examined along various dimensions.

What you will learn:

• Worldview: implicit and explicit bias
• Cultural dimensions: research and practical tools
• Cultures, emotions, and apology: what does one needs to know?
• Memory, analysis, and culture: studies and results
• Decision making across cultures: tips, traits, and stories
• Power and culture: working effectively with authority
• Cross-cultural mediations: an effective cross-cultural model
• Faith-based mediations: expanding your cross-cultural practice?
• Culture and gender: approaching cultural holistically

Faculty: Sukhsimranjit Singh and Deep Basraon

Sukhsimranjit Singh practices, teaches and trains in dispute resolution. He is the managing director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and assistant professor of law and practice at Pepperdine Caruso Law. He specializes in cross-cultural dispute resolution and has published numerous articles in that field, and in 2015 he delivered TED Talk on Cross-Cultural Communications in Salem, Oregon. He has mediated inter-cultural and commercial cases in the United States, India and Canada. An Honorary Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators, he is also a Council Member of the Section of Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association. He has trained lawyers and law students in more than twenty states and twelve countries. He is an honorary professor of law at National Law University, Delhi. Singh obtained his Masters in Laws in Dispute Resolution from University of Missouri Columbia and was a Fellow at the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline University School of Law and has clerked with Chief Justice of India. An avid reader and an amateur photographer, he loves to travel with his family. He is passionate for music, sports, and interacting with new cultures.

Baldeep "Deep" Basraon is a lead consultant for businesses in the United States and Canada on cross-cultural decision making and on statistical analysis of business growth. She merges the two fields of dispute resolution and mathematics with her master's degree in dispute resolution from the University of Oregon School of Law and her bachelor of science in statistics and applied mathematics from California State University. Among other clients, Basraon has successfully helped Choice Hotels, Wyndham Group, food chains, farm owners, and private dispute resolution practices in managing revenue increases while creating budget cuts. With a passion to help parties in identity-based conflicts, her mediation practice is focused on business-to-business conflicts and national culture conflicts. Basraon has taught or lectured on negotiation and cross-cultural dispute resolution at national and international conferences in India, the United States, and Canada, and she has served as a professor of mathematics at Chemeketa Community College in Oregon.