By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//February 26, 2014//
By Peter Contuzzi
Dolan Media Newswires
The small, first generation of lawsuit mediators experienced settlement negotiations from a unique perspective — not from the sides of the table, but at the center, where you see and hear much more, especially during confidential caucuses.
Over the course of decades and thousands of negotiations, my observations from that center seat about lawyers who are successful in mediations have become distilled and clarified. Those lawyers come in a wide variety of styles (including the often maligned “tough guy”), but the most consistently effective have shared these qualities:
During that endgame, they entrusted reliable mediators to use information they were not willing to disclose to the other side to see if an agreement was possible.
But clients often are more concerned about other matters, and mediation can provide a process for those. Indeed, that’s where I have obtained the greatest satisfaction from my work as a neutral (so much so that in this last phase of my career, I accept cases only when the most important issue in dispute is something other than money).
Lawyers who are sensitive to these non-monetary concerns can get a similar level of satisfaction by tailoring the mediation process to client needs.
Peter Contuzzi has worked exclusively as a mediator and arbitrator since 1984, having previously been a civil litigator. He can be contacted at [email protected].