Add Your PerspectiveNovember 25, 2013
Settlement the Way Your Clients Want It — The Presentation
It’s hard to imagine a better audience than the Dallas Bar Association’s Bench Bar Conference to discuss litigation, settlement, and new ways to look at both. I recently got the chance to do just that, and the talk — and the debate that followed — were even better than I had imagined.
Clients often have a different perspective on settlement than their lawyers, and we had fun exploring why.
No, we didn’t start with stories about settlement. We began with the Zig Ziglar’s take on how a newlywed couple cooked their fist roast — and we decided that just because we’ve been settling cases one way for the last 30 years doesn’t mean we need to settle cases the same way tomorrow.
I won’t repeat the whole talk here, but a few highlights include:
- The quote from one of my old clients that first put it all into perspective for me: “I’m not in the litigation business. I’m in the business business.”
- Why — and how — clients are different from the lawyers they work with; More…
Categories: ADR,Mediation,Negotiation,Settlement
Add Your PerspectiveNovember 24, 2013
Negotiation Ethics: The MWRA Presentation
I recently had the pleasure of presenting Negotiation Ethics: From Oxymoron to Everyday Practice to the Mississippi Water Resources Association’s 2013 Educational Conference in Vicksburg — and I think we all learned something in the process.
As you can imagine, a talk on negotiation ethics for engineers is a bit different than one to lawyers, but a few of the quotes that resonated with the MWRA’s membership apply to lawyers, too. A great example is this one from Warren Buffett:
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
and another is this one from Stephen M. R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust:
When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden ‘tax’ on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up.
While the talk might have explored the formal boundaries that More…
Categories: Negotiation,Negotiation Ethics
Add Your PerspectiveApril 4, 2013
Settlement Counsel: 10 Free Internet Resources
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Settlement Counsel concept — I’ve written about it, I’ve published an Updated List of Settlement Counsel, and I’m speaking about the idea in practice with Gary McGowan and Christopher Nolland today at the 15th Annual Section of Dispute Resolution’s Spring Conference.
For lawyers and clients wanting to learn more, a quick Internet search for “Settlement Counsel” doesn’t easily lead to the most informative — and free — resources, so I pulled together a list of links to where you might want to start. Naturally, if you think I missed a good one, please let me know.
Settlement Counsel Hyperlinks
- Kathy A. Bryan, When ‘Winning’ Is the Expensive Solution, LEGAL TIMES (Apr. 16, 2007).
- Kathy A. Bryan, Why Should Businesses Hire Settlement Counsel?, 2008 J. DISP. RESOL. 195.
- John DeGroote, Who Serves as Settlement Counsel? The (Updated) List, SETTLEMENT PERSPECTIVES L. BLOG (June 11, 2012).
- John DeGroote, Why Settlement Counsel? A Lesson from the Scorpion and the Frog, SETTLEMENT PERSPECTIVES L. BLOG (May 29, 2012).
- John Lande, The Movement Toward Early Case Handling in Courts and Private Dispute Resolution , 24 OHIO ST. J. ON DISP. RESOL. 83, 115-20 (2008).
- James E. McGuire, Why Litigators Should Use Settlement Counsel, 18 ALTERNATIVES TO HIGH COST LITIG. 6 (June 2000).*
- Gary Mendelsohn, Lawyers as Negotiators, 1 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. 139, 139-67 (1996). More…
Categories: ADR,Negotiation,Settlement,Settlement Counsel
1 PerspectiveFebruary 23, 2013
Something Bigger: Gene Roberts’s Remarks at the 2013 TAM Annual Conference
As a longtime participant in the mediation process my primary focus has been its impact on my clients’ litigation — it’s one way cases get resolved, which saves us all money, time, risk, and more. But yesterday I got another perspective on mediation, and I was reminded that it is, truly, Something Bigger. My perspective came from Gene Roberts at North Texas Negotiations who, along with Adam McGough, chairs this year’s Annual Conference for the Texas Association of Mediators.
Gene’s remarks begin with the traditional perspective of a conference chair, but the message he gets to is unmistakable:
The conference is run by volunteers. There’s no paid staff. We’ve done our best and we ask for your indulgence if something unexpected happens. It’s not for want of planning More…
Categories: ADR,Mediation,Miscellaneous,Negotiation
Settlement Perspectives
is the professional weblog
of John DeGroote.
I created this site to help clients and their counsel navigate the challenges that inevitably result from disputes, settlement efforts, impasse, and negotiation in general. The perspectives I bring are based on my experience, summarized in this abbreviated bio. If you have any questions or thoughts about this site, or an issue you’d like to see addressed, please email me at:
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- Why Settlement Counsel? A Lesson from the Scorpion and the Frog
- The Decision Tree, Step by Step: How Much Is Your Million Dollar Case Worth?
- Lawsuit Settlement: 7 Ways to Get There Faster, Better and Cheaper — The Presentation
- Early Case Assessments: An Updated Index to Settlement Perspectives’ ECA Posts
- Why It May Be a Bad Idea to “Send them a Message”
