The Complete Legal Negotiator

Lawyers are not litigators. Lawyers are negotiators. Even those few who specialize in litigation generally settle more cases than they take to trial. The practice of law has evolved to a point where negotiated or mediated outcomes are the most obvious measure of your value to your clients.

How does this program stand out amid the flood of promises you hear about CLE programs?

• Gerry Williams and his pioneering team have studied the negotiating practices and effectiveness of 1,100 lawyers. Williams leads the field in teaching negotiation based on the real-world experience of practicing 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 combative approach that seeks win-lose outcomes.
• Lawyers who deal skillfully with one type of opponent are often ineffective in dealing with the other. Success in negotiation requires a repertory of skills and techniques. It is not based on a "one-size-fits-all" approach.
• Williams incorporates the findings and methods of other leading researchers and teachers. He shows how their observations and prescriptions fit into an approach that will increase your satisfaction and effectiveness as a negotiator.
• Negotiation fulfills important social and psychological needs in individuals and organizations that cannot be satisfied in other ways. Williams will help you see that negotiation is a process that can be polished every day.

What will you see and do?

• 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.
• 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.
• Voluntary exercises are interspersed in the program to lead you to that moment when you realize, "Oh that's how or why that works!"

The Plateau of Adequacy

We all reach a state where we are comfortable that we can accomplish the task at hand... then we move on to the next skill, the next task, the next improvement. The plateau of adequacy — our acceptance that we are good enough - explains why we shoot an OK round of golf, but never get close to par; why we are published in the local paper, but don't have The New York Times asking us to pen an op-ed piece; why we get good results for our clients, but don't get called for the really BIG deals. To reach greatness requires more than practice. It calls for specific practice - deliberate and reflective practice.

Williams will put you on the proven, documented path toward being a great negotiator. He has seen them. He has cataloged them. He has taught them. He knows how they got to be great negotiators and he knows how to teach you to be one of them. You are not as valuable as you can be until you've spent a day with Williams.

Program Outline & Schedule (6 hours)

The Complete Legal Negotiator is also available as a 3-hour program.

[Part I: 90 minutes]

Six Organizing Questions

How to Develop as a Negotiator Short and Long-Term

• Know How to Evaluate a Case (and to apply the New Economic Analysis of Settlement)
• Involve Your Client in Evaluating the Case
• Learn the Two Most Powerful Methods for Developing Negotiation Skills
• The Art and Science of "Deliberate Practice"
• Systematic "Reflective Practice"
• Examples of Negotiation Skills to Deliberately & Reflectively Practice

Pre-Negotiation-What the Best Negotiators Do Before They Negotiate

• Preparation & Evaluation
• Deciding Upon Negotiating Objectives
• Deciding Upon and Implementing a Negotiating Strategy

Characteristics of Conflicts That Come to the Attention of Lawyers

• How Such Conflicts Arise
• The Dangers They Present
• Methods for Resolving Them
• The Nature of the Lawyer-Client Relationship

Negotiation as a Ritual Process

• A Necessary Means to the End
• It Unfolds in Predictable Stages
• If You Do It Right, Something "Sacred" May Happen
• Three Kinds of Negotiated Outcomes
• Mere Compromise and Settlement
• A "Business-Like Solution" that Makes Both Sides Better Off
• A "Business-Like Solution" accompanied by Transformation or Healing
• Five Stages or Steps Clients Must Pass Through to Achieve Resolution
• Six Qualities of True Professionals

[15 minute break]

[Part II: 90 minutes]

Negotiating Patterns of Experienced Lawyers
(based on Williams' landmark clinical studies of 1,100 lawyers)

• Basically Cooperative and Basically Aggressive
• Effective and Ineffective Negotiators of Each Pattern
• Healer and Warrior

DVD of a "Requirements Contract" Business Negotiation

• Facts, DVD, Transcript, Patterns, Further Analysis

[Lunch]

[Part III: 90 minutes]

Complete Business Negotiation case

• Cooperative's ability to dove-tail interests of both sides

Gaining Personal Experience with Cooperative & Aggressive Patterns

• Win As Much As You Can
• Brief explanation and reference to additional materials

[15 minute break]

[Part IV: 90 minutes]

Tit-for-Tat in Theory and Practice

Applying Tit-for-Tat-with-Softeners to the Business Negotiation

Recognizing and Resolving 2 Major Difficulties

• A Cooperative Negotiator vs. an Aggressive Negotiator
• An Aggressive Negotiator vs. another Aggressive

Brief Review of Deliberate and Reflective Practice

Deliberate Practice Against a Persistently Combative Opponent

• Review of the Strategy of a Master Negotiator Against this Opponent
• A Defining Characteristic of Aggressive Ineffective Negotiators: a Refusal to be Influenced 
• Review the DVD and transcript of the Negotiation
• Deliberate Practice: Proposing Responses to a Persistently Combative Opponent

If Tit-for-Tat-with-Softeners Fails - Dealing with Opponents who Refuse to be Influenced

[Adjourn]