My career has focused on helping disputants by analyzing and promoting helpful lawyering and other dispute resolution techniques.  The ABA book, Litigation Interest and Risk Assessment: Help Your Clients Make Good Litigation Decisions, is the culmination of my scholarly career, combining Michaela’s and Heather’s excellent research on litigation risk assessment and my work on planned early dispute resolution.

I believe very deeply in its value, and so I have been publicizing it through blog posts, videos, and resources for teachers to incorporate in their courses.

I recently reached out to some friends to let them know that I am available to do video educational programs.  I am pleased that a good number of people responded, and I have scheduled events including being a guest speaker in class, participating in CLE programs, one-to-one conversations, talks with student groups, and more.

One of the virtues of these programs is that they don’t require the time, expense, or hassle of travel – for both speakers and audiences.

I am available to participate in more programs, so if you would like me to speak in your class or other event at your school or for a professional education program, please let me know.  Some friends have passed my name along to professional groups organizing CLE programs.

I can do pre-recorded programs which provide more control or synchronous programs which allow for interaction with audiences.  Whenever possible, I will arrange to have synchronous programs recorded and then add them to my post with a collection of LIRA videos.  Faculty may want to assign or recommend some videos in your courses.

You might want to use this video I recently did with Elayne Greenberg, which summarizes takeaways from the LIRA book as well as my earlier book, Lawyering with Planned Early Negotiation.  It’s 24 minutes, though the last four minutes are about my patented photography techniques, which your students may not care about.  She asked about addressing racism in our teaching, and you might recommend that they read this post on some history of racial issues in the US to provide useful context.

I am happy to tailor my presentations to particular audiences.  For example, I could talk about some or all of the following topics:

  • Why parties and lawyers often make bad decisions in litigation, especially decisions to go to trial
  • Lawyers’ and mediators’ ethical duties to help clients make decisions
  • Framework for analyzing cases including expected adjudicated outcome, tangible costs, and intangible costs of the process
  • Techniques for assessing expected court outcomes (aka “BATNA” values) and bottom lines
  • Detailed discussion of intangible costs / interests, which practitioners often ignore or don’t adequately value
  • Application of LIRA techniques in client counseling, negotiation, and mediation
  • Use of LIRA techniques to integrate “positional” and “interest-based” approaches
  • Use of LIRA techniques to integrate “facilitative” and “evaluative” approaches

Elayne’s video reminded me about insights from the Lawyering with Planned Early Negotiation book that I could discuss including:

  • Ethical issues in negotiation
  • Techniques for developing good relationships with clients
  • Effects of attorney fee arrangements on lawyer-client relationships
  • Techniques for developing good relationships with counterpart lawyers
  • Description of three negotiation processes including “ordinary legal negotiation
  • Planning and conducting negotiations
  • Dealing with problems arising in negotiation
  • Continuously improving practitioners’ negotiation skills

Some folks asked if I was expecting to be paid for my presentations.  The answer is generally not.  If a host normally pays speakers, then obviously I would want to get the customary payment.  But I am doing this because I want to help students, faculty, and practitioners get ideas they would find valuable, not to make money.

If you would like to discuss a possible presentation, please let me know.