• How to prepare your client for mediation
• The use of a mediation plan
• The importance and use of the opening statement
• The use of joint vs. separate sessions
• How to decide what information to disclose in the mediation session
• The propriety of ex parte communications with the mediator
• The cause and resolution of impasse
• Other ADR options… and much, much more

Who Can Benefit?

• Mediators from all fields
• Non-lawyers wishing to learn how lawyers view mediation
• All lawyers interested in mediation and alternative dispute resolution practices
• All Rule 31 mediators
• Lawyers unfamiliar with mediation
• Lawyers looking for cutting-edge mediation

O. Russel Murray's Book FREE

All participants receive The Mediation Handbook: Effective Strategies for Litigators (Bradford Publishing 2006) free. Additional copies will be available for purchase ($55).

Keynote Speaker: Honorable Judge Dale Workman

The Honorable Judge Dale Workman will provide his perspective on Alternative Dispute Resolution

Meet The Trainer - O. Russel Murray- Mediator, Arbitrator, Dispute Resolution Counsel

Before becoming an ADR professional, Russel worked for over 20 years as a business litigation and transaction attorney.  After receiving his LLM from Northwestern University Law School in 1977, Russel began his career as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, in Washington, D.C., where he also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. 

In 1980, Russel returned to Denver with a large law firm, where he practiced until 1983 before forming his own business litigation and transaction firm.  

O. Russel Murray is the Managing Director of ADRcom.com and is one of the leading business and commercial ADR professionals in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region.  He has arbitrated and mediated cases locally, nationally, and inter-nationally.  He has lectured and written extensively on the subject.  His most recent book, The Mediation Handbook: Effective Strategies for Litigators will be given to all participants.

A review of The Mediation Handbook: Effective Strategies for Litigators by O. Russel Murray (Bradford Publishing 2006)

Mediators and lawyers need reference material that is informative, helpful, understandable, and capable of producing the "AH HAH" moment. The Mediation Handbook: Effective Strategies for Litigators, by O. Russel Murray is just that. It is a great tool for lawyers, lawyer/ mediators, and non-lawyer mediators. This has something to offer everybody involved in the mediation process.

Lawyer/litigators will greatly benefit from this book. Mr. Murray suggests that preparation for mediation must include an inventory of the client’s interests, needs, and motivations (INM), as well as those of other disputant(s). He also describes how to communicate with the mediator to achieve an optimal agreement, and offers valuable suggestions on how to switch gears from the litigation mindset to the dispute resolution mindset. One chapter is devoted to describing an entirely new area of practice: the Dispute Resolution Counsel.

Mediators will gain from his easy-to-remember techniques and humor. His wonderful tips, tools and strategies will certainly improve their effectiveness and skills. Non-lawyer mediators get a sense of how to work with lawyers. Mr. Murray describes how to help the lawyer and his client reach deal optimality and transaction efficiency. Mr. Murray’s book will help the mediation participant to prepare for the mediation session by obtaining information which is necessary to successful mediation.

Toward the end of the book there is a chapter on ethics in mediation and a fascinating section on Game Theory as it applies to the mediation process. Mr. Murray says "In the vein of finding favorable outcomes for parties in conflict, Game Theory has some of the same goals as the mediation process.”

Mr. Murray helps all of us interested in quality mediation to analyze, scrutinize, and add to our arsenal of tools. This book belongs as a handy reference book in everybody’s briefcase.

"Effective mediation can lead to better settlements- & achieving better settlements means greater satisfaction for your clients & a thriving law practice for you!." - O. Russel Murray

The practice of law has long been our tradition and system of dispute resolution in our society. However, the focus of litigators has been to “win,” which also means someone will “lose.” Therefore, the arena of law, played out in our courtrooms, is seen as a game, or more often a battle between two warriors. Because of the high cost of litigation, many cases (90 to 95%) are settled out of court.

O. Russel Murray asks, “Did they settle well?” Optimal resolutions are rarely found in win-lose scenarios. So, because education and training of lawyers prepare them as “warriors,” finding optimal resolution through settlement may be a difficult shift. Education and training in mediation can be helpful.

Mediation has become a useful tool for optimizing your clients’ best interests. Through the mediation process, your clients can “settle well” and optimal resolutions can be achieved. Winning the best for your client may also mean that the opposing party may participate in winning for optimal resolution for everyone. Murray introduces us to the idea of Dispute Resolution Counsel.

O. Russel Murray, in his book The Mediation Handbook: Effective Strategies for Litigators (2006), provides useful information for litigators to utilize for an optimal, cost effective system of dispute resolution that meets the 21st century legal framework in which lawyers are now working—the settlement scenario.

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