This registration form is for Wednesday, July 31, 10:00 a.m.–Noon ET
This program was also presented on May 10, 2024.
| MCLE Credit: | 2.0 |
| Live-Interactive Credit: | 2.0 (all dates, all formats) |
Strategies for mediation always start with your analysis of what you need in your case. This analysis should guide your selection of the mediator and how they see their role. If the mediator is a traditional expert mediator (as most are, either because they know these cases and likely outcomes, or because they have a keen sense from former litigation experience or judicial experience about how a court will view your case), then you need to prepare, first as an advocate to persuade the court of the strength of your case. If you have chosen a problem-solving mediator, chosen to help the parties understand each other and then think creatively about how to solve an otherwise intractable case, then you will need to use strategies designed to problem-solve, making interest-based demands, and eschew position-bargaining and win-lose demands. You will need to learn the language of problem-solving that favors goal- or need-based presentations that create room for creative, even non-business solutions to otherwise difficult cases.
Wide use of mediation has resulted in a cacophony of experiences by parties often forced into using the process. How can today’s advocate sort out these different experiences and best enlist the mediation process to serve the goals and needs of their clients? Understanding negotiation theory will go a long way in helping the advocate manage the mediation process. It will also give the advocate more control over the process and help the client have a deeper understanding of both their own goals and needs but also of the risks of proceeding to litigation.
Topics covered include:
Registration Deadlines:
Webcast: | 10 minutes prior to seminar. If you register for a webcast the day of the seminar, your e-mail receipt will include a link to launch the seminar and download the materials. |
Telephone: | Online registration ends at 11:59 p.m. the day preceding the seminar |
Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE®.
Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.
Inclement Weather Policy and Updates.
MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.
Can’t Attend?
E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
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10:00 | Strategies for Advocacy in Modern Mediation |
12:00 | Adjourn |
Prof. Paul J. Zwier, Emory School of Law (retired) / Atlanta, GA
Paul J. Zwier II is Of Counsel to Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC with offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC. He is one of the nation’s most distinguished professors of advocacy and skills training. He joined the Emory Law School faculty in 2003, taking on several roles. As director of the Advocacy Skills Program, director of Emory’s Program for International Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, and a professor of law, Professor Zwier joined the Emory University Law School faculty from the University of Tennessee Law School. He also teaches evidence, torts, products liability, and an advanced international negotiation seminar. He previously served as professor of law and director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution at the University of Tennessee. Prior to that he taught at the University of Richmond School of Law from 1981 to 1999.
Mr. Zwier has served as former director of Public Education for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and has taught and designed public and in-house skills programs in trial advocacy, appellate advocacy, advocacy in mediation, motion practice, negotiations, legal strategy, e-discovery, supervisory and leadership skills, and expert testimony at deposition and trial for more than 25 years. In 1998, Mr. Zwier received NITA’s Prentice Marshall Award.
His clients benefit from his expert advice on trial strategy, jury analysis, and negotiation and mediation strategy. He consults on a wide variety of disputes and topics including litigation involving bad faith insurance, products liability law, federal civil procedure, evidence law, the False Claims Act, securities fraud, patent litigation, MDLs, and other complex litigation matters. He is also an expert and consultant in international dispute resolution. He has provided consulting services with The Carter Center (TCC), including its work in Israel/Palestine, in Syria, and in Liberia. In 2007 he was part of a TCC delegation working on the conflict in Gaza. In Liberia, his consultations included working with a delegation from Emory’s Institute for Developing Nations (IDN), providing TCC with an assessment of its GBV programming in Liberia, and working with magistrates, judges, and lawyers in building capacity following its civil war. This led to consultation and collaboration with the TCC in its collaboration with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Mr. Zwier has trained judges and lawyers for the international criminal courts, including the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, and ICT-Sierra Leone. He has also lead training for Lawyers Without Borders and NITA, for the governments of Liberia, Tanzania, and in Kenya. He has also taught advocacy skills to international lawyers and judges in Yekaterinburg, Russia; Mexico City, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya; Tbilisi, Georgia; Northern Ireland; Scotland; England; and led seminars in negotiation and dispute resolution for black South African lawyers as part of a State Department program in 1999.
Mr. Zwier is the author of numerous books and articles. He received his JD from Pepperdine University in 1979, LLM from Temple University in 1981, and BA from Calvin College in 1976.
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