The American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) Presents the Mediator’s Endgame: Closing the Deal and Safeguarding the Settlement

This program will address cutting-edge issues facing mediators in achieving and preserving negotiated settlements. Attendees will receive practical guidance for assisting parties in consummating resolution of their disputes while adhering to ethical canons of particular relevance in mediation and avoiding common pitfalls that can derail settlement.

Through a series of practical and ethical scenarios, the panelists will explore how mediators should respond when a party asks what the settlement number should be; whether and when to use tools such as bracketing, decision trees, reframing of issues, or mediator opinions; and whether it is appropriate to speak with a party’s counsel outside the client’s presence, or with a party outside counsel’s presence. The discussion will also address difficult moments in the mediation process, including how to respond when a party directs the mediator to tell the other side that it is not negotiating in good faith, or when a party privately states, toward the end of a frustrating day, that it selected the mediator because it expected the mediator to expose the other party’s weaknesses.