Here's part one of a multi-part interview with Lee Jay Berman of the new American Institute for Mediation.  Lee Jay is one of the foremost mediation trainers in the United States. 

Why bother with yet another mediation institute? 

For the same reason I spent the vast majority of time at the recent ABA Dispute Resolution conference talking to attendees rather than attending seminars. 

What we need now is not more book learnin', not further power points, not even more bullet points scratched on the Gulliver sized post-it notes favored by mediation trainers. 

What we need is more one-on-one.  More personal attention to the precise skills we need to improve, the questions we don't yet know how to ask, and the knowledge that can come only in intimate conversations with some of the best mediation practitioners and trainers in the world.

I'm lucky to live in Los Angeles.  I have snagged free time with mediators such as Ken Cloke,  Lee Jay, Jim Melamed, Woody Mosten, and others too numerous to list, asking them the precise questions the answers to which I desperately need for my mediation practice to develop to the next level.  The kind of answers Ken gives, for instance:  "behind every accusation is a cry for help."  A mediation koan I must flee the premises to fully appreciate ("please, Ken, no more wisdom; let me take this nut back to my tree, hold it up to the sun, knock it against the nearest branch, offer it to a friend for further inspection, crack its shell, taste its meat and come back next month to report on the results.")

Now is your chance to go one-on-one with the world-renowned group Lee Jay has put together at affordable prices.

Listen to Lee Jay here in the first of a series of conversations about the new American Institute for Mediation. If I couldn't get Ken Cloke's advice for the cost of a glass of carrot juice at a local Santa Monica cafe (yes, Ken is one of the world's most generous men) you can be certain I'd be flying in from wherever I was now to take his Mediating Dangerously course at AIM (June 4-6, 2009).

And, oh yes, LITIGATORS???????  Listen.  My husband's client is about to spend a cool $18K for one full day of mediation.  Should he have mediation training? Yes, he should and thanks to his service on the federal court's Settlement Officer panel, he does.  Is there anything to learn other than how to pitch your legal and factual positions to the mediator; to bluff and cajole; to start low/high in the hope that your negotiating partner doesn't know the value of his own case?  You betcha!  Come study with the best and wax the opposition in your next facilitated negotiation with a third party neutral.