Mediation Advocacy

These tips on mediation advocacy are aimed at plaintiffs' lawyers but are widely transferable.

Examples: "Don’t reveal your bottom figure too soon, even to the mediator."

"Be patient. Most large cases do not settle quickly. It may take more than one session."

Your client's "anger will create an impediment to settlement. In addition, your client may not understand why her lawyer is candidly admitting weaknesses."

These tips for lawyers representing clients in mediation are by Roger Booth via Donna Cole.

22 Tips to Improve Your Negotiation Skills

22 good negotiating tips from Karrass.  Among them:

"If you get people angry, they will get even by rejecting your message, even when it is good for them." and "The Chinese say, 'Time brings things in slow degrees.'  The skilled persuader starts early and lets acceptance time, repetition, and logic do the job by slow degrees."  Fits right in with yesterday's post on patience as a virtue in negotiation.

Patience is key to life’s endless negotiation

The Financial Times is my favorite daily publication for many reasons.  Among them are columnists like Luke Johnson.   Here he provides nice examples supporting "two of the golden rules in negotiating a deal: be patient and do not get emotionally involved." 

So much easier said than done! 

And why it's often very helpful for a negotiators to part of a team -- so teammates can catch each other from being impatient or too emotional.