By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It has been an up and down week for the Obama administration in the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Justice Department scored a mixed result on Arizona’s immigration law preserving the “papers please” policy that Arizona intends to apply to immigrants in that state, allowing police officers to demand proof of citizenship from
Learn From Your Wins and Your Losses Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Trial lawyers typically want a smart jury. There are definitely exceptions, but because advocates are prone to believe that they represent the side of light, logic, and truth, the feeling is that, “As long as we get a jury that is smart enough to see past our opponent’s error and
Don’t Fool Yourself on the Advantages of Intelligence Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Once I was looking into the purchase of a new car. So I visited the showroom, not with the intent of purchasing that day, but with the more general goal of gathering information. I wasn’t there for two minutes, however, when the salesman hit me with the question, “So, what
Play It Where It Lies: Throughout Trial, Match the Message to the Mindset Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Stories require more than sequence. They require a sense of place, a tone, and a texture. Even when told without prepared images or video, a good story requires language that helps the mind “see” and not just comprehend the action. There is one study that perfectly captures this point (Tversky
Talk to the Eyes: If It Can’t Be Visualized, It’s Not a Story Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If we don’t normally think of “happiness” when we think of mediation, it may be because a good settlement is generally not something that makes all the parties happy. Instead, it is more often something that makes the parties equally unhappy. At the same time the notion of happiness, or
Don’t Forget About Happiness: The Settlement Series, Part Four Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Mediators have a delicate job. They know it isn’t their role to praise or blame a party. It isn’t their role to take sides. To do so means sacrificing their credibility and their effectiveness along with it. But the tougher question is whether a commitment to stick to facilitation, rather
Know When to Give Your Mediator a Voice: The Settlement Series, Part Three Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is a perspective on negotiations focusing on tactics, secret strategies, or tricks. The problem with this tricks-based approach is that once you have two sides who think they know the tricks – like “never make the first offer,” – then you’re headed for a stalemate faster than a game
Don’t Play Chicken With Your Case: The Settlement Series, Part Two Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We all have an image in our heads of the way we expect cases to end: passionate presentations, gripping witness testimony, then a tense wait followed by the dramatic verdict. In the great majority of cases, however, the dispute will end not in a courtroom but in a conference room.
Break Through the Barriers: The Settlement Series, Part One Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: If you are like me, you have grown tired of hearing that sublime tautology of a catch phrase, “It is what it is.” I want to shout in response, “Of course it is! What else would it be?” But the expression perfectly captures the attitude of some litigators toward analogies.
Fight Fire With Fire (And Fight Bad Analogies With Better Ones) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Here is a piece of advice that works not only as a trial message, but also as a strategy for avoiding trials in the first place: When someone loses their job, make sure it is for reasons that meet the legal tests, even when those tests aren’t legally required. For
Treat Your Terminations as “For Cause” (Even When They’re “At Will”) Read More »