news
January 2007
2007 Courses:
Early Bird deadline
Mediation in Employment Matters
Mediation Provides Speedy Resolution
- again
Global Challenges for Conflict Resolution
Ø
International Coalition of Concerned
Mediators
Ø
Concordis International
Update
Chambers Guide to the UK Legal
Profession
We wish all of our readers a very happy,
healthy and prosperous 2007 – and a year in which differences and disputes are
resolved quickly and constructively.
2007 Courses:
Still
thinking about it? Last opportunity for Early Bird rate
Ø
Mediation Skills Training:
26-29 March 2007
CPD over 28 hours
The Early
Bird discount for our next internationally-recognised mediation course in
March is available until Tuesday,
January 16. To take advantage of
this discount, click here to register on-line or here for a registration form, or contact
A number of participants from commerce, the public sector and the
professions have signed up already and we are looking forward to another excellent
four days. The course, which is ideal for decision-makers,
managers, professional advisers and negotiators, is led by our experienced team
of coaches and mediators and focuses on dealing with differences and disputes
in business, the workplace and litigation.
The optional Assessment
Module on 18 – 20 April
leads to Core’s valued Certificate of Competence in mediation skills.
“To me one of the most striking things about actual mediation
was how much it resembled the role plays from the courses. I would never
have expected them to mirror each other so strongly, right down to the words
participants used. It not only impressed
upon me the effectiveness of the training provided by Core; but also showed the
universality of human reactions to conflict, confirming for me the relevance of
this training to all aspects of life.”
Ø
Advising and Representing Clients in Mediation:
23 February 2007
CPD 7 Hours plus
An Early
Bird discount is also available, until Friday,
January 19, for this course which is
ideal preparation for solicitors, advocates, in-house advisers and others who
wish to know more about mediation, the process, and how to make best use of it
for clients and others. Learn about
preparation and presentation, pre- and post-mediation agreements
and creative negotiation skills.
Register here on-line or click here for a registration form, or contact Lisa Garrow on 0131-221-2520 or lisa.garrow@core-solutions.com.
Mediation in Employment
Matters
The
Chairman of Employment Tribunals has
recently issued a Practice Direction including these terms:
“Where both (or, as the
case may be, all) parties to a claim agree that it should be sisted for mediation a Chairman of Employment Tribunals
shall sist it for that purpose.”
“The sole purpose of this
Practice Direction is to focus parties’ minds on mediation as an option for the
resolution of employment disputes.”
“This Practice Direction
in relation to mediation clearly envisages what might be described as external
mediation. It is without prejudice to
the pilot being carried out in
The
Lawyer Magazine (11 December 2006)
reported that research carried out by the Centre for Dispute Resolution, Lewis Silkin and Barclays, has shown that companies spend on
average £277,000 in resolving an employment dispute. However, research shows that the cost could
be cut to £9,000 if the dispute is mediated in the early stages.
A
survey of 570 business managers from throughout the
Mediation offers an excellent opportunity to employers and employees,
managers and teams, to address difficult situations and tensions speedily,
constructively and much less expensively. Core has considerable experience of mediation in
this area. Recent examples include:
Ø
senior level allegations of harassment and bullying
Ø
claims
of discrimination and whistle-blowing
Ø
ongoing tension within a team in a public sector organisation
Ø
staffing issues in a voluntary body and
Ø
board room conflict in a new business.
Mediation in
Property Matters
“There is a
myth about mediation. Many believe that
mediation is only appropriate for disputes which have reached the later stages
of litigation and where the parties have staked out their position in court
pleadings. In fact, there is a much more
extensive role for the independent facilitator who acts as a mediator. He or
she can add value wherever differences occur which are difficult to resolve.
This is perhaps especially so in property matters.”
Click here
to read Core’s recent article in Green’s
Property Bulletin, with examples of mediations in several settings including
property development, housing projects,
Lands Tribunal and planning applications and professional negligence cases
– and a discussion of “deal mediation”.
Mediation
Provides Speedy Resolution - again
“It’s a pity we didn’t
have this discussion five years ago”.
“It has taken five years of time and money to get to the real issue here
– and it took a couple of hours today”. “We’ll take back what we’ve learned and
make changes to make sure this doesn’t happen again….”
In
the last edition of Core News, we mentioned a dispute in
Essential
to these successes is the willingness of the principals and the lawyers (and
other advisers if involved) to work constructively and cooperatively, always
looking for the way forward. That was well illustrated in another recent
mediation where, after two days of robust and rigorous analysis of the issues
and options, bottles of champagne were opened at the conclusion. All concerned
from both sides of the dispute celebrated together having reached an acceptable
outcome.
Rapid Response: if you have an urgent
need for a mediator or facilitator to assist with a difficult situation,
whether a dispute in the courts or a business deal or contract which is being
negotiated but where things have got stuck, call Core on 0131 221 2520 and we’ll do our very best to provide you
with immediate help.
Core News
Ø
Visit by Amanda Bucklow
Readers will recall reference in a recent Core News to Amanda’s
research into mediators’ aptitude.
Amanda recently addressed an in-house seminar organised by Core, sharing some
of the insights gained through her research.
The research covered a year of mediations with 30 mediators and 30
“serial users of mediation”. The purpose
of the research was to identify and start a process of evaluating the
intangible strengths of mediators.
Amanda described how excellent mediators use their skills to create an
environment for parties to “choose to agree”.
The research highlighted how users of mediation value some
strengths which mediators themselves take for granted (for example: ability to
build trust), or those which mediators do not even mention as part of their
mediation ability (for example: intelligence and incisiveness).
During the seminar, participants commented that they had seen
clients’ impressions of mediation change, both during and in the months after
they had experienced mediation. It seems that members of the legal profession
often enjoy the mediation experience as an alternative to more traditional
processes.
Ø
Sporting Themes
Click here for UK Sport website: www.uksport.gov.uk
Core Abroad
Ø
Philadelphia
“Mediators
are not impartial”. These were the deliberately provocative opening words of Robert Creo, one of the most experienced commercial mediators in
the US, at the Annual Conference of the
Association of Conflict Resolution (www.acrnet.org) in Philadelphia in October last
year, which
Creo suggested that mediators “…. have a clear bias towards settlement -
and should acknowledge this in the process…” Food for
thought, perhaps?
Other themes from the conference include:
Ø Over reliance on rational
thought in the mediation process may be unhelpful, in that resolution is often achieved
at a different level. The use of intuition deserves to be acknowledged
more.
Ø Decision or probability
trees can be an effective tool in moving parties from an imprecise view of their case - “our case is reasonably good” - to a
more analytical approach, as part of
risk analysis exercises.
Ø Incremental concessions
by parties may not send the right signals about building trust. Parties and their advisers should allow the mediator, who will
see a bigger picture, to coach them on making and receiving offers. Timing, who makes an
offer and the words used will all be critical.
Ø The use of “visualising” can be helpful in
encouraging parties to contemplate what it would feel like to be in a
particular situation (for example, with this dispute behind them) and to think
through the consequences.
Ø
Swiss Role
Global Challenges for Conflict
Resolution
Ø
International
Coalition of Concerned Mediators (ICCM)
One of the challenges facing the emerging
profession of mediators is that, while they are significantly engaged in
helping business, organisations, local communities, families and professionals
to resolve disputes, their role in the major issues of the day such as
international conflict, terrorism and climate change seems limited. Of even
more concern is that the techniques and processes which work so effectively in
helping to resolve very difficult commercial and neighbourhood disputes seem to
be deployed in only a limited way in larger scale conflicts.
So, it was interesting to learn that over 75
leading mediators have signed a statement urging that community, national and
global leaders engage effective negotiation and mediation approaches. Click here
to read the text of the Mediators'
Statement developed at the recent Senior Mediators Conference in Keystone,
Signatory mediators and the ICCM ask all who
support the Mediators' Statement to express support at www.concernedmediators.org
by adding your name to the list of supporters and by sharing this with friends
and colleagues.
Ø
Mediating through the United Nations
Jonathan Henderson worked for Core as an Intern during the last two
summers. We were delighted to learn that Jonathan has had an article published,
based on his Honours dissertation, which he developed during his time with
Core. Click here
to read the article.
Ø
Concordis International
Update
In a past newsletter we mentioned the excellent and important work
of Concordis International in peace-building, in
places like Sudan and Darfur. Click here
to read an update on that work and here for the Concordis
website: www.concordis-international.org
Chambers Guide to the UK
In
the latest edition,
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