Author Archives: abfifer

Should Mediators Speak to the Media?

April 16, 2013 – 2:49 pm

The parents of Adam Lanza, the young man responsible for the Sandy Hook murders, were divorced in 2009, after mediation. After the massacre last December, reporters tracked down the mediator, Paula Levy, and apparently asked her some questions. She was willing to answer them, at least generally. What is a mediator’s obligation to preserve confidentiality […]

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President Obama, Mediator

April 9, 2013 – 4:14 pm

There was another apology in the news a couple weeks ago: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on March 22 to Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a 2010 raid on a Turkish flotilla that killed 8 Turks. Any apology is news, but of even more interest to peacemakers is the fact that this was […]

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Evaluating Another Public Apology

March 30, 2013 – 1:30 pm

Helping people make effective apologies is part of being a mediator and conflict coach, so it’s instructive to evaluate apologies. We had another public example this week from former CIA Director General David Petraeus, who began his speech to a group of veterans Tuesday with these prepared words: “Needless to say, I join you keenly […]

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Guns in Mediation

February 1, 2013 – 3:41 pm

The nightmare that mediators have long dreaded has come true: a mediation party pulled out a gun this week and shot the other party at the close of a mediation. The parties had a contract dispute, and the plaintiff, a man named Arthur Harmon, had sued the defendant, Steven Singer, for $17,000. The mediation took […]

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Learning About Mediation from Being a Participant

January 22, 2013 – 1:47 pm

I had a unique mediation opportunity to last week: I was a participant (defense attorney) in a mediation. Here are eight things I learned about mediation: 1. It can be useful for the mediator to meet with the attorneys just before the start of the mediation. This gave the mediator an opportunity to hear each […]

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