JAMS, the largest provider of mediation and arbitration services worldwide, today announced it has relocated and expanded its Resolution Center in Silicon Valley. The new location is nearly twice the size of the former office with 15,000 square feet and features incredible 360 degree views of Silicon Valley.

“JAMS continues to be a leader in ADR services both nationally and internationally,” said Chris Poole, JAMS president and CEO. “Our new Silicon Valley location has more…

Theory vs. Practice

"Direct experience is not enough. Virtually any method of resolution may prove effective in addressing one or two situations of conflict. But we often do not know why. It might be because they are sound methods, because the particular method happened to work well with a particular type of conflict, because the…

I recently came across an news article talking about real estate agents who were certified as negotiation experts. Some further research led me to their program's website, which detailed topics covered in 2-5 day seminars for real estate agents. (Disclaimer: I have no connection to the program and…

I thought the following presentation would be of interest to fellow mediators and others working in conflict. It explains the semiotic perspective on nonverbal communication.

Matthew Rushton, publisher of The Mediator Magazine in the UK and a well known legal journalist, has joined JAMS International as deputy director. This is the second high-profile new hire for JAMS International in 2011. Lorraine Brennan joined as managing director in January.

Follow link below for more information.

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There has been recent cultural property disputes where countries bring actions against museums (i.e. the Getty Museum, the Met, etc.) claiming the museums should return particular items to the country of origin. How courts decide these issues has a lingering effect on loan agreements between countries and museums.

One current example is seen Russia and the Met Museum (see the news article…

JAMS Foundation Awards More than $100,000 in New Grants

May 19, 2011

Irvine, Calif. – The nonprofit JAMS Foundation announced that it approved five new grants to organizations using innovative ways to promote and advance conflict prevention and dispute resolution. The foundation will distribute the money in the form of two Foundation Grants, which provide financial support up to $50,000 for ADR initiatives with national impact, and three…

I’m starting this summarizing post on my way home, travelling from Beijing to Istanbul over an airborne version of the ancient Silk Road – the trade routes which have connected China and the West over the past couple of millennia. I certainly do feel that I have been on a trading run - I came with full bags of goods and left with bags of other goods – but the details of the transaction, the content of the saddlebags, are yet to be explored.

So far as the conference itself is…

(originally posted at Absolution Mediation)

Whenever I say Intent, Action, Effect it always feels like I'm saying lights, camera, action!

Anyways...let’s take a moment and look at this model together. I really like this model because we are able to break down virtually every conversation we have and talk about what our private motives were and what was the public event/action that took…

Hello all,

I'm currently a law student at Creighton and also pursuing the M.S. in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution through the Werner Institute. This summer I will be blogging about new issues and ideas in the ADR field. I'm very interested in art and art history, so many of my posts will probably be slanted toward those subjects.

Feel free to provide comments and feedback (because I'm sure everyone is tethered to their computers during the beautiful summer…

Find more music like this on ADRhub Werner Institute

Episode #22

20 Characteristics of Successful Mediators With Vickie Pynchon

Join host Jeff Thompson and mediator and author, Victoria Pynchon (Check out…

(Originally posted at Absolution Mediation)

Isn't this a beautiful picture of a glorious winter?  From all the beauty that we can see in this picture we know that something is wrong.  That snow is covering poop.



This past weekend I picked up my dog’s poop that had accumulated over the winter.  It was a bittersweet moment, bitter because it…

Over the weekend, conference participants had the opportunity to serve as judges in the 3^rd Annual China University English Language Negotiation Competition.

Teams of students from eight universities squared off against each other in four rounds of negotiation, using simulations spanning a wide spectrum of topics. Judges observed the negotiations and scored parties on process issues and outcome.

As a judge, I was surprised and impressed. Surprised, at the fact that…

 I felt right at home in Peking University’s School of Law. Perhaps this is because so much of my own law school experience seemed to me to be going on, at times, in Chinese. Alternatively this may be due to Andrew and Vivian’s skillful and…

As the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching conference opened in Beijing today, participants were offered to partake in breakout activities in three tracks aiming to anchor the conference around a local perspective: Chinese law, education in China and Chinese culture.  

I chose to participate in the latter. In this blog, I’ll share a description and some insights from two activities led by Andrew Wei-Min Lee and Feng Ying Yu, directors of Beijing-based…