Bargaining With the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight
Professor Robert Mnookin
Williston Professor of Law and Chair of the Program on Negotiation,
Harvard Law School
“One of the country’s most eminent practitioners of the art and science of negotiation offers practical advice for the most challenging conflicts: where demonization is rampant; where there is fear and anger; where a disputant sees herself facing an adversary she does not trust, who may harm her, or who she may even see as evil. As professionals how do we help disputants make wise decisions about whether to bargain with the “devil” or instead resist? Drawing on his new book, BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL: When to Negotiate, When to Fight Professor Mnookin will explore the challenge of helping disputants in such situations.
Disputes of this sort arise across the board. In an age of terror, our national leaders face this sort of question every day. Should we negotiate with the Taliban? Iran? North Korea? What about terrorist groups holding hostages? In business disputes, your clients may face devils of their own. A joint venture has collapsed and a business partner feels betrayed. A business competitor has stolen your client’s intellectual property. Family conflicts are challenging for the same reason. A marriage is ending and a spouse is making extortionist demands. Siblings are fighting over an inheritance. Using conflicts drawn from history and his own professional experience, Mnookin will offer a framework that applies equally to international conflicts and everyday life."
Professor Temple Grandin
Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University
As mediators we work to be careful about our assumptions and question our perceptions, to be open to and discerning about the communication around us. Temple Grandin, a gifted animal scientist who has revolutionized the design of livestock-handling facilities to make them more humane, is also autistic. She thinks, feels, and experiences the world in ways that are profoundly different from people without autism. From her dual perspectives as a scientist and an autistic person, she will describe for us autism from the inside, opening us to a different way of thinking of the world. Drawing on her extensive research on animal behavior, she will offer her original interpretations of the way animals perceive the world as being in some ways similar to that of people with autism. In taking us into her unique perspective, Professor Grandin reminds us of the breadth and richness of our shared humanity.
Thursday Afternoon Focused Plenaries:
Mediation Focus:
The Mediation Post Mortem: A Model for Enhancing Mediation Learning and Practice
This mediation-focused plenary will give attendees the tools to conduct critical assessments or examinations of a mediation after the fact, to enhance the skill of individual mediators and improve practice in the profession as a whole. As Roger Fisher of Harvard Law School has said: "The practice of medicine never got better until physicians started conducting autopsies." Each panelist will present an actual mediation case that would have benefited from a post mortem and will discuss structure, protocols and procedures for conducting a mediation post mortem, a cost/benefit analysis of the mediation post-mortem, criteria for selecting cases for a mediation post mortem, and institutionalizing learning and best practices from a mediation post mortem.
David Hoffman, Boston Law Collaborative, Boston, MA; James Lawrence, Frost Brown Todd LLC, Cincinnati, OH; Michael Lewis, JAMS, Washington, DC; Irma Tyler-Wood, Ki ThoughtBridge, LLC, Cambridge, MA
Arbitration Focus:
Arbitrating Sports -- Dispute Resolution of U.S. Olympic and International Athlete Eligibility and Doping Claims
Arbitration is the statutorily designated and largely exclusive method of dispute resolution for Olympic and international sports. The Olympic and Amateur Sports Act of 1978 authorizes the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as the exclusive governing body for U.S. participation in the Olympic Games and international athletic competition. The Act charges the USOC to provide for the “swift resolution of conflict and disputes” involving athletes and national sports governing bodies. The Act provides that disputes involving U.S. Olympic athletes or governing bodies be submitted to the American Arbitration Association (AAA) for final and binding determination and calls for the position of a USOC Ombusdsman to provide independent advice to athletes at no cost. Athletes participating in sanctioned international competitions are also subject to the rules and dispute resolution processes of international sports authorities, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC), all of whom have adopted binding arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), domiciled in Switzerland. This panel will discuss the domestic and international arbitration processes for Olympic and international sports dispute resolution, highlight the unique role of the USOC ombudsman, and give insights into the expedited arbitration process and role of arbitrators, advocates, and law in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Maureen Weston, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA (Moderator); John Ruger, USOC Ombudsman, Boulder, CO; Matt Mitten, Professor of Law, Marquette University School of Law, Milwaukee, WI; Michael Lenard, International Court of Arbitration for Sport, Los Angeles, CA
