10 Reasons to Mediate Your Divorce

Our customers at Liaise tell us that we that our service is fantastic, but they also say that many of their friends don’t even know what mediation is. “You guys should do a simple “10 Reason to Mediate Your Divorce” list so I can explain it to my friends”, we are told. So OK, here is a try, but it turns out that the hard part is picking only 10 reasons. 1. Never Go To Court. It seems...
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Forging a Better Chain

A model of interpersonal communication that one often hears is that of a “chain”.  And like a literal chain, the figurative chain of communication is only as strong as its weakest link. Unfortunately, every chain of communication is fraught with imperfections and opportunities for ambiguities, misunderstandings and miscommunications. Let’s break the chain down into some of its...
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Plan in Pencil!

Before he was President of the United States of America, Dwight D. [Ike] Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. As the Commanding General, Eisenhower was responsible for the planning and execution of the largest military event of all time. The allied invasion, by sea and air, of Hitler’s occupied Europe. Imagine the planning and logistics involved in such a task....
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Familiarity Breeds Content

During a mediation recently in Oakland, CA I was dealing with some “challenging” personalities.  One party pointedly refused to shake my hand.  He acted like he knew that in my unspoken heart I was biased against him and looking to manipulate the process so he would get screwed.  His demeanor and words crossed the line and if I was thinner skinned, I would have been insulted.  I...
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You Can’t Always Get What You Want [Secrets of BATNA and WATNA Revealed]

At a recent mediation in Walnut Creek, CA I was reminded that people sometimes come to mediation with expectations that are, if not unrealistic, out of proportion to the process at hand. Many times inexperienced litigants imagine that their case is unassailable and crystal clear to any disinterested third party to whom they may tell it.  They have been living with their dispute for so long and...
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Everything is a Negotiation

Recently listening to the San Francisco outlet of National Public Radio I heard an interview with Ron Suskind discussing his new book The One Percent Doctrine. In this book Mr. Suskind takes his readers into his experiences conducting the interrogation of some of the most highly prized prisoners in the war on terrorism, Abu Zubaydah and the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheik...
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