Dana Curtis

Faculty Codirectors Dana L. Curtis, Lecturer, Negotiation and Mediation Teaching Program, Stanford Law School, Private Mediator, Dana Curtis Mediation, and former Circuit Mediator for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.     The Honorable Daniel Weinstein, Former Judge, Superior Court of San Francisco, Cofounder, Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services (JAMS), and The Recorder's Top Mediator in the Bay Area for 2002.     Maude Pervere, Senior Lecturer in Law and the Director of the Negotiation and Mediation Teaching Program, Stanford Law School.

The Gould Center and Stanford Law School Executive Education will inaugurate their Practitioner Training Program with the Mediation & Mediation Advocacy Training Program, a five-day/40-hour workshop March 23 through 28, 2003, at the Gould Center. The first in a series of executive education programs for legal practitioners, the Mediation and Mediation Advocacy Training Program extends the Gould Center’s base of exemplary academic programs in negotiation, mediation and dispute resolution to practitioners. Lawyers will escape the day-to-day practice of law to learn the fundamental skills essential to representing clients effectively in mediation.

Elevating the Level of Mediation Advocacy Practice
Mediation is mainstream. In many jurisdictions most litigated cases are mediated. Yet, few lawyers have invested the time and energy required to raise their mediation advocacy practice to a level of excellence. When lawyers approach mediation simply as an alternative forum for an adversarial proceeding, they miss much of mediation’s potential to resolve disputes effectively, efficiently and fully. Lawyers and clients in complex disputes are often not as well prepared as they could be to make the best use of either the mediator or the process.

The course will cover topics such as: choosing a mediator, preparing a client, writing a mediation statement, determining and presenting an opening offer or demand, making counterproposals, being creative, working with a mediator, overcoming impasses and closing a deal.

The Gould Center Approach to Learning
Consistent with Gould Center academic courses, the Mediation & Mediation Advocacy Training Program blends current negotiation and mediation theory with hands-on intensive practice in an intimate learning environment limited to 24 participants. In small groups, participants will mediate simulated disputes and receive individualized coaching and feedback by experienced and highly regarded Bay Area mediators and teachers of mediation and negotiation.

Program Content
The program will develop the following key competencies:

• Understanding the nature of conflict and principles of conflict management
• Awareness of crucial negotiation theory and tools, including how to prepare for information bargaining, psychological realities, and risk management
• Expanding the lawyer’s role from the pre-mediation to the post-mediation phase
• Strategies for dealing with the difficult client, lawyer, and mediator
• Learning communication skills essential to effective mediation and representation
• Appreciating the policy and ethical implications of the expanding use of mediation

Sunday, March 23, 6:30 p.m.
Opening Dinner and Keynote Address
Featuring the Honorable Rebecca Westerfield (Ret.), Panelist, Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services (JAMS)

Monday, March 24, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Behind the Smoke and Mirrors: The Method in Mediation
• Adjusting the Litigator’s Map of the Mediation Terrain: A More Effective Approach to Serving Clients in Mediation
• Expanding and Dividing the Lawyers’ Pie: Negotiating in Mediation

Tuesday, March 25, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Getting Ready: Selecting the Right Mediator, Getting the Right Participants, Preparing Effectively
• Swords into Plowshares: Communication Skills in Mediation
• Judging Mediation: Emerging Mediation Law
• On the Right Foot: Beginning the Mediation Process

Wednesday, March 26, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Dealing with the Enemy: Understanding and Managing Conflict, Working with Difficult People
• Behind the Table: Managing Lawyer-Client Conflict
• Getting Set: Exchanging Information in Mediation
• Why Good People Make Bad Decisions: Psychological Factors in Settlement

Thursday, March 27, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• Who Should We Trust?: Ethics and Integrity in Negotiation and Mediation
• Shall We Make a Deal?: Risk Analysis

Friday, March 28, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

• When It All Comes Down to Money: Bargaining at the End of Mediation
• What to Do When There’s No Place to Go: Working through Impasse
• How to Succeed Without a Deal: Agreeing Short of a Complete Settlement
• Before We Say Goodbye: Concluding and Documenting the Mediation