Lawyers are negotiators. Even those few who specialize in litigation generally settle more cases than they take to trial. Negotiated or mediated outcomes are the most obvious measure of your value to your clients. Gerry Williams and his pioneering team have studied the negotiating practices and effectiveness of 1,100 lawyers. Williams's team discovered and documented two conflicting paths to effectiveness in legal negotiation: the cooperative, problem-solving approach that seeks win-win outcomes and the aggressive or the combative approach that seeks win-lose outcomes. Lawyers who deal skillfully with one type of opponent are often ineffective in dealing with the other.

In this seminar, you will see video presentations of spontaneous, unscripted negotiations, broken down so that you watch the strategies unfold and the tactics come together (or fall apart). You will learn that things visible to outside observers may be very difficult to see when you are in the heat and pressure of negotiation. You will learn to recognize the signs of weakness in "insufferably obnoxious" opponents, how to thwart their tactics, help them overcome their weakness, and in so doing, strengthen your position. You will do voluntary exercises interspersed in the program to lead you to that moment when you realize, "Oh that's how or why that works!

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