Now that Rumpole has gone I’ve decided to follow another fictional silk with a taste for Rioja, Charon QC. His recent podcast features Los Angeles based mediator Victoria Pynchon who writes for IP ADR. Victoria says that her job involves using mediation to help lawyers negotiate settlement of litigation. She says that her generation of lawyers were never taught negotiation, that “litigators don’t know how to negotiate”, they don’t like negotiating, they don’t like compromising – litigators like to win!
Is the role of personal injury lawyers to negotiate or to litigate the best settlement? No doubt most would say to achieve the best settlement whether that be through negotiation or litigation. But what training have you had in negotiation? It was not taught at law school when I passed through some years ago. It formed a half hour sesion of a one day CPD course I attended. Is the skill of negotiation so intuitive that it doesn’t need to be taught?
To litigate hard was the philosophy of the firm where I spent my formative years. We were (and they still are) good litigators. I believed that this approach was in the best interests of my clients, it was the only way to ensure a reasonable settlement for them. With the advent of the CPR and the changes in the Solicitors’ Conduct Rules failing to explore ways to negotiate settlement simply isn’t an option.
So how good are you at negotiation? How did you acquire your skills? How could you improve them?
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