My sister and I were roommates in Chicago back when we were both beginning our professional careers. To travel home to our small town in rural Missouri for a holiday was a seven-hour one-way drive; long, boring and made treacherous by winter weather. We drove Interstate 55 and, not only is this a long stretch, but a flat, wind-blown road with snow fences along the fields to keep the drifting snow off the Interstate. We drove a 12-year-old, hand-me-down Chevy Caprice, nicknamed the Green Beast; it was a boat, so we felt safe amid the trucks and other holiday travelers zooming down the road with ..read more

Who attends the mediation is critical. My own experience bears this out—when the actual decision maker is in the room and actively participating, we have a much better chance of settling. The higher the stakes, the more important it is for the right people to sit around the table. 3M, headquartered in St. Paul MN, is number 116 in Forbes Fortune 500 listing. In 2008, 3M acquired an Indiana company, Aearo Technologies, which sold earplugs to U.S. military.  However, in 2015, 3M ceased manufacturing the ear plugs. Complaints from veterans arose about hearing loss and tinnitus. An earlier wh ..read more

While riding my bike on a tranquil bike path, I smelled smoke. The smell became stronger. Then I saw smoke–lots of it. Beyond some adjacent shrubs was a road with small businesses and one of those businesses was on fire. Smoke was billowing out of every window and the roof. The fire trucks were assembling and beginning to shoot strong jets of water from their hoses. The heat radiating from the fire was fierce, sweltering, and frightening. My brain wanted to run but I was transfixed.  I had never been so close to a serious fire.  A team of firefighters ran into the burning building; t ..read more

FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) invited me to join in their latest video geared help FINRA Arbitrators. I filmed from my dining room while my colleagues were in the recording studio and we demonstrated how seamless using ZOOM can be. Lots of hearings and mediations are still moving ahead on ZOOM and with so many parties and attorneys coming in from all over the country, virtual hearings can be faster and cost effective. So check out my FINRA debut! https://www.finra.org/arbitration-mediation/neutral-workshop-audio-and-video-files   The post New FINRA Workshop Video ap ..read more

] Do you remember Cabbage Patch Kids; sweet, soft baby dolls with the strange faces that were such a phenomenon back in the 80s?  My Christmas story involves my much younger sister’s fervent desire for a cabbage patch kid for Christmas.  I am so lucky to have a sister who’s 16 years younger than I am, so as a young professional I could come home to stay with my parents and spend the holidays with this delightful little girl. One Christmas, she (like every other child in America) asked Santa for a cabbage patch kid.  I’m including a picture so you can be reminded of these funny ..read more

Have you ever compared the design of US dollars to other countries’ notes, like the Euro? Each Euro numerical denomination includes color and architectural treasures.  I’ve included a picture of the EURO note so you can see an illustration.  Each denomination boasts detailed illustrations of doorways, bridges and aqueducts.  https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/design/html/index.en.html Look closely. None of the illustrations represent actual existing monuments or bridges.  What?!?  Europe, the home of Gothic cathedrals, Palladium windows, leaning towers and Rose s ..read more

As COVID ebbs and flows and we are now on our second booster shots, mediations are coming back to in-person. I am seeing hybrid mediations with most clients and attorneys in person, but a couple of participants using ZOOM. This will the model going forward.  The benefits of ZOOM participation are easy to list:  cost saving; convenience; ability to make right person available for the ZOOM, etc.  But there are thoughtful reasons to attend a mediation in person: To see and hear your opponent live.  ZOOM cannot capture the “whole person” and you may want to make your own asse ..read more

Just as you can hone your trial advocacy skills, you can hone your mediation advocacy skills.  I have the pleasure of presenting three continuing legal education (CLE) webinars with my mentor and colleague Mike Geigerman on mediation advocacy.  We will be sharing many tips on how to be the best advocate you can be, but I’d like to share three tips that you can incorporate into your practice now. The Missouri Bar Association is offering mediation advocacy 101 on January 4, 2022 at 2:00 PM.   https://mobarcle.mobar.org/item/2022-mediation-advocacy-101-437687?eventTimeId=34879 ..read more

“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” was a groundbreaking movie focusing on an interracial love story. Who were the suburbanite parents expecting their daughter to bring home to dinner in this 1967 movie?  Unmet expectations make for a great story, but they do not make for a great mediation.  Actually, they can make for disaster and who we expect to attend the mediation is critical. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri spells out who must attend: All named parties and their counsel are required to attend the ADR conference, participate in good faith, and possess the r ..read more

The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) recently published an article on the art of negotiating online. The ISBA Journal is near and dear to my heart since they published several articles I wrote much earlier in my career. Members can access the article online, or if you are not a member, I have highlighted in this blog what I think are some important takeaways. 1. Online negotiations can be successful. I work as a mediator so I’m going to focus on mediation negotiations online.  If anything, ZOOM has taught us is that online negotiations can be so productive–I just finished a multi-mil ..read more