Mediation Advocacy: Skills and Best Practices for Taking Off Your Trial Hat

We are living in an era of Alternative Dispute Resolution, with mediation often the first, and increasingly early, stop on a path toward resolving a case short of a verdict or judgment. We are taught to argue and advocate on behalf of our clients. However, some of the skills that serve us in court and trial will not be effective in the conciliatory process of mediation.

This panel, including Justin T. Green, Michael Siboni, Tracey Spencer Walsh, Linda Gerstel, and led by Frederick Alimonti, discusses and dissects the litigation skills that work best in mediation and how to advocate in an environment in which a pure win is neither unattainable nor desirable, but skills of persuasion remain invaluable, if not essential.

Learning Objectives:

1. Prepare for mediation, including client preparation
2. Keep cool and know when to extend the "olive branch" and when to "stand pat"
3. Understand what to reveal and what to withhold: the "smoking gun," the "slam dunk," and the "skeleton in the closet"
4. Set and maintain the right tone
5. Provide the mediator the tools he/she needs to persuade on your/your client's behalf
6. Close the deal: memorializing an agreement that will not collapse later

This course originally appeared as a part of our September 2017 Bridge the Gap Event.