Over the last 3 days I have been writing a section in my forthcoming book, the 2nd Ed of the ‘Contentious Probate Handbook’ (for the Law Society) entitled – ‘Mediation Advocacy Skills.’
It runs to 25 pages. When completed, in around 2/3 weeks’ time, it will run to nearly 40 – 50 pages of speaking notes/material.
This section of the book is based upon my ‘Speaking Note’ for an online talk I am presenting on Thursday 24 October 2024, to members of the Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (scmastandards.com) worldwide, entitled, ‘Mediation Advocacy in Trust & Estate Disputes.’
In order to ‘sharpen the saw’ before putting pen to paper, I have spent the last 2 months researching Mediation Advocacy/Negotiation Skills & Principles/Strategies.
I learned my ‘negotiation’ skills ‘raw’, i.e. ‘sink or swim’, as there was no training in those days – you were just thrown into the deep end.
This was when I worked all over the world & at the ‘coal-face’, as a negotiator for Rolls Royce & Alstom in Paris.
Some of the material in the book is sourced from a hand-written ‘Notebook’ of ‘Negotiation’ skills that I wrote, compiled and used to carry around with me when working overseas on major negotiations. It became my own ‘Negotiation Skills’ bible.
Jonathan Dingle, the co-founder of the Civil Mediation Council, and the Society of Mediators, and the author of text book chapters on mediation in Powers & Harris on Clinical Negligence and in Friston on Costs, and co-author of the best-selling handbook ‘Practical Mediation’ has very kindly granted me permission to include a section from ‘Practical Mediation’ about ‘active listening skills.’
Professor Andrew Goodman, who has just written a new book entitled – ‘Advanced mediation Advocacy’ is contributing paragraphs for inclusion in this section of the book about – ‘What if the obstacle is not the other participant but his mediation advocate – how do you persuade a hostile mediation advocate to engage with you in a constructive problem-solving dialogue?’
I anticipate that both in the UK & globally, demand for high quality ‘Mediation Advocacy’ training, i.e. ‘Negotiation Skills Training’ for dispute resolution lawyers, is likely to grow along with the exponential growth of Mediation, following the changes in the CPR made by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2024, made on 24 July, which come
into force on 1st October 2024.
If you would like me to present a course or talk to you about ‘Mediation Advocacy Skills’ in ‘Commercial Mediation’ and the ‘Mediation of Trust/Estate Dispute’, I have done the leg-work over the early part of the summer and have now created a ‘product.’
To enquire about my Mediation Advocacy Training services, please send an email to clerks@1ec.co.uk.
I am available to provide professional training online or in person, anywhere in the world, from 1 October.