Traditional mediations typically involve both sides, and their lawyers, spending all day (and sometimes into the night) in separate conference rooms, where a large part of that time is spent either educating your mediator or waiting on the other side or both. There is often little progress made until, suddenly, everyone seems to realize that the end of the day is approaching, and there is mounting pressure to resolve the matter.
Often these late-night resolutions, when everyone is exhausted and struggling to think clearly, result in forgotten terms, unresolved issues, and buyer’s and seller’s remorse, among other things. The parties can feel pressured by the timing or by sheer exhaustion. And traditional mediations use an expensive, all-day fee structure that offers little flexibility.
Most participants don’t emerge from the traditional mediation process feeling good about it. While the adage, “a good settlement is one where both sides are unhappy,” may have some truth to it, it should not be true about the mediation process itself. Yes, parties are happy to have settled, but they can also often feel the process was rushed, pressured, or unfair to them.
For law firm partnership disputes, partner departure disputes, and dissolutions, there are many reasons why this one-size-fits-all approach does not work very well.
When both the buyer and the seller have remorse, it’s time to ask whether there is a better way.
