Negotiation

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Back in August, Bloomberg reported that the legal costs for the six largest U.S. banks since 2008 totaled over $100 billion. (Yes, billion with a “B.”)  Bloomberg included settlement amounts in that huge number, as well as fees to lawyers.

The financial and emotional costs of litigation, not to mention the tremendous amount of time required, amazes me.  Litigation has its place, but the vast majority of disputes eventually settle and many times all parties would have been better off settling earlier using some form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). 

A former colleague recently pointed me to the University of Missouri School of Law’s listserv for ADR educators. 

I know many of our readers only teach business law courses, but adding negotiations to my teaching package has made me see the various intersections between negotiations and business law.  This semester, I set aside some time in my business law classes to discuss a bit of the negotiations literature, and the students seemed to appreciate it.  I just signed up for the listserv, so I cannot speak to its quality yet, but I do think more business law professors should consider exploring the world of ADR.

On March 24, the petition for certiorari was denied in the Strine v. Delaware Coalition For Open Government, Inc. case, ending the Delaware Court of Chancery’s experiment with arbitration by their sitting judges.  (H/T Brian Quinn). 

As far as I know, however, sitting judges on the Delaware Court of Chancery still conduct mediation.  A Chancellor or Vice Chancellor does not mediate his own cases, but rather mediates the cases assigned to one of the other four judges on the court (if the parties agree to submit to mediation). 

More information about the Delaware Court of Chancery’s mediation process is here.  The benefits of the mediation include:

  • Expertise.  You would be hard pressed to find someone more knowledgable about Delaware corporate law and the merits of a Delaware Court of Chancery case than a sitting Delaware Chancellor or Vice Chancellor. 
  • Relatively Inexpensive.  The fee is only $5,000 a day, for cases that are already on the Chancery docket, which is a decent amount of money, but is dwafted by the legal fees spent in almost all of these cases.  For mediation only cases (cases not already on the docket), there is a $10,000 initial fee

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Harvard

Just received my confirmation for the Harvard Negotiation Institute, which takes place this June at Harvard Law School.

I decided to jump right into the “Advanced Negotiation” workshop, so we will see how that goes.  It is pricey, but I hope it to be a good investment for my institution and something I can draw on in my classes.

Like I have said before, I believe that negotiation should be a required course at law schools and business schools everywhere (though I realize that is now a self-interested opinion).  Every lawyer and business person spends a great deal of time negotiating. 

After the Institute, I am sure I will blog about the experience. 

Now that I am teaching MBA courses in negotiation, I see negotiations everywhere.

For example, in reading about the extremely interesting NLRB ruling in favor of the Northwestern University football players – holding that the players are “employees” and can unionize – I came across this Sports Illustrated article:  Northwestern ruling sends clear message: NCAA, it’s time to negotiate.

Former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter does a nice job articulating some of the interests from the players’ side of things in this video.

Given this ruling, which will be appealed, and the O’Bannon v. NCAA case which is set for trial on June 9, there is likely to be a great deal of negotiation between the NCAA and players outside of the courtroom over the next few months.  As the cases move closer to potential resolutions in favor of the players, the NCAA’s BATNA (best alternative to a negotiation) weakens.   The NCAA, however, may raise doubts about the players’ BATNA, by raising things like the possible tax implications of a court victory.

These will be complex, multi-party, multi-issue negotiations.  The parties with interests at stake include current and former players, coaches and athletic directors, colleges and universities, the…

Tonight, I will teach my first negotiation class, to a group of Belmont University MBA students.  Over the past months, I have read a number of books on negotiation and reflected upon the negotiation I did in practice and am still doing in my professional life and personal life.  The more I read and think about the subject, the more I am convinced that law students and lawyers (in addition to business students and business people) need more training in negotiation.

In litigation, I have heard that well over 90% of cases settle before trial, requiring negotiation, and in the transactional context, negotiation is ever-present.    

The late-Roger Fisher of Harvard Law School (and co-author of the perennial best seller Getting to Yes) has a short video clip about negotiation v. litigation posted below. My legal training did a good job sharpening my critical thinking, improving my attention to detail, and preparing me to “win” arguments.  However, I cannot remember much time devoted to joint-problem solving, uncovering underlying interests, and dealing with people problems.  While much of what is written in Getting to Yes and its progeny is common sense, it is easy to stray from its guidelines…