(image from Should I Join a Law School Study Group?)

Listen Up!!  This may sound foolish but I had the best study group in my law school (all of us graduated in the top 10%).  Why?  Because I naturally gravitate toward the smartest people in the room and then boldly ask them to join my study group or be a member of my law firm or speak on a panel or write an article with me.

Gee, legal practice is actually just one life-long study group when you think about it, no?

In any event, I loved my study partners and people I practiced with (o.k., there were a few exceptions) and continue to seek out the best and the brightest from whom I can learn and work at the same time.  

That is the very very long introduction to our upcoming Pincus Communications Seminar:  Settlement Techniques that Give You the Winning Edge.

Who Will You Be Learning From?

How about two of the best and most sophisticated settlement and trial judges in the entire Los Angeles Superior Court system:  full time settlement Judge Alexander Williams, III and Complex Court Assistant Supervising Judge Victoria Chaney?

But that's not all.  Joining us will also be former Federal Magistrate and Judicate West mediator, the Hon. John Leo Wagner (Ret.); former Paul Hastings partner, AAA arbitrator and Judicate West mediator, Jay McCauley; and, Les J. Weinstein, registered patent attorney and antitrust guru (an AAA arbitrator and complex commmercial and IP mediator).

These are the people at whose feet I sit to improve my game and my skill set is pretty darn good if I do keep saying so myself.  

What You Will Learn if You Attend This Seminar

• The ten social psychological insights that will minimize your own self-defeating negotiation behavior and maximize your opponents’ bargaining weaknesses 
• The ten basic rules of “distributive” or “fixed sum” bargaining that will give you the “edge” in all future settlement negotiations 
• The ten ways to “expand the fixed sum pie” by exploring and exploiting the client interests underlying your own and your opponents’ legal positions 
• The ten ways to get your case settled to your clients’ best advantage at Mandatory Settlement Conferences for both routine and “bet the company” cases 
• The Top Ten Errors Made by Parties When Attempting to Settle Disputes that their Contracts Require Them to Arbitrate 
• The Ten Rules of Cross-cultural negotiation in International Arbitration 
• The Ten Laws Critical to the Enforcement of Mediated Settlement Agreements 
• The Ten Mediation/Settlement Conference Traps for the Unwary

THE ACTUAL "GOODS"

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. The social-psychological dynamics of conflict resolution taught by attorney-mediator and high-profile ADR blogger, Victoria Pynchon, J.D. LL.M (conflict resolution). Victoria is an Adjunct Professor at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and a neutral with the Southern California ADR firm, Judicate West and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Settling Disputes in the Arbitral Forum by AAA commercial arbitrator and former Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker litigator, Jay McCauley. Mr. McCauley is an Adjunct Professor of Arbitration Law at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and a neutral with the American Arbitration Association and the Southern California ADR firm, Judicate West.

11:00 – 11:15 a.m. BREAK

11:15 – 12:15 p.m. Mediating the settlement of intellectual property and technology related litigation with cautionary tales from the antitrust trenches taught by patent infringement and competition law litigator, arbitrator and mediator, Les Weinstein, of Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson. Mr. Weinstein is an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

12:15 – 1:15 p.m. Lunch on your own

1:15 – 2:15 p.m. Mandatory Settlement Conferences (MSC) “best practices” taught by Judge Alexander Williams, III, Los Angeles Superior Court Settlement Department and Adjunct Professor of Clinical Practice at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

2:15 – 3:15 p.m. The Machiavellian Negotiator taught by former Federal Magistrate John Leo Wagner, who was formerly head of Irell & Manella LLP’s ADR Practice Group. Judge Wagner is a neutral with Judicate West..

3:15 – 3:30 p.m. BREAK

3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Settling Sophisticated, Multi-party Commercial Litigation in the Complex Court, taught by Judge Victoria Chaney, Complex Court Assistant Supervising Judge