Articles

Advice for Users and Representatives

Learn to swim in the deep end of mediation – but if you prefer wading that’s fine too This article from NYSBA’s State Bar News encourages counsel to explore and use the rich range of opportunities that can be found in mediation.Read more…
Mediation – Alchemical Crucible For Transforming Conflict To ResolutionDay in and day out, we encounter one another, make deals and resolve disputes. Whether it is setting a bedtime with a recalcitrant five-year old, making dinner plans with a narcissistic couple, setting up a distributorship, breaking a lease or the host of other issues that might make their way into court if not otherwise resolved – we negotiate. Negotiation is so common, we barely notice it…Read more…
Tips on How to Negotiate and Acquire Negotiation SkillsWhen asked to address the modest subject of “How to Negotiate and Acquire Negotiation Skills”, I am reminded of the narrator’s comment in Moby Dick…Read more…
Top 10 Things Not to Do in MediationMediation is widely used these days. Federal court mediation programs have been in place since the 1990s; the Supreme Court’s Commercial Division…Read more…
Mediation And E-discoveryThere is nothing like a book focused on e-discovery to give the reader a sense of the complexity and expense of litigation. Over the last two decades, as cases have grown increasingly complex and expensive, there has been growing interest in alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) mechanisms, like arbitration and mediation, as a possible means of reducing the cost, formality, complexity and disruption of litigation…Read more…
Online Mediation in a Time of Coronavirus – Summer 2020 Issue New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer – Viral Changes During the Pandemic
This article in the Summer 2020 Issue of NYSBA’s Dispute Resolution Section’s New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer – Viral Changes During the Pandemic – reviews approaches to mediation as a threshold consideration in answering the question of how Zoom or other online mediation platforms are effective and can be used most effectively. It walks the reader through a nuts and bolts approach to Zoom mediation. It offers practice tips for the use of Zoom in mediation. It ends by taking a second order look at Zoom mediation based on having conducted dozens of sessions during this time of COVID lockdown; and raises the question of how the field will be altered when we return to a new normal.Read more…
Online Mediation in a Time of Coronavirus – Virtual Lawyering A Practical Guide (NYSBA 2020; Mark A. Berman, Editor)This Chapter of NYSBA’s Virtual Lawyering: A Practical Guide reviews approaches to mediation as a threshold consideration in answering the question of how Zoom or other online mediation platforms are effective and can be used most effectively. It walks the reader through a nuts and bolts approach to Zoom mediation. It offers practice tips for the use of Zoom in mediation. It ends by taking a second order look at Zoom mediation based on having conducted dozens of sessions during this time of COVID lockdown; and raises the question of how the field will be altered when we return to a new normal.Read more…
Effective Mediation of the Personal Injury Matter:
Grasping Victory with an Open Hand (NYSBA 202_; Patrick J. Higgins, Editor)This Chapter of NYSBA’s upcoming revision of its treatise “The Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Action in New York State” provides a guide for plaintiffs, defendants and insurers on the handling of personal injury mediations. After placing personal injury mediations in the broader context of the varieties of orientations and substantive areas in the mediation field and considering the unique role of personal injury matters, it provides a set of pragmatic tips, nuts and bolts observations, and guidance for the practitioner representing parties in personal injury mediations.Read more…
New York State Bar Dispute Resolution Section – White Paper on Insurance DisputesAt the heart of the insurance business is the resolution of claims. Insurers routinely adjust claims and provide for indemnity and defense. Accordingly, some have said that the business of insurers is litigation. In fact, it is more accurate to say that the business of insurers is dispute resolution: including negotiation, mediation, neutral evaluation, and arbitration, as well as litigation…Read more…
A Guide to Alternative Dispute ResolutionCo-op and Condo Mediation.Read more…
Featured Publications on Super LawyersA series of articles by Simeon H. Baum featured on Super Lawyers.Read more…

Insights for Mediators

Bringing ADR HomeADR Section Chair Joan D. Hogarth and Former ADR Section Chair Simeon H. Baum present the first article of an anticipated regular ADR Column for The Federal Lawyer.Read more…
The Technique of No TechniqueA Paean to the Tao-Te Ching and Penultimate Word on Breaking Impasse…Read more…
Sausage Making Laid BareDefinitive Creative Impasse-Breaking Techniques in Mediation – Chapter from book published by New York State Bar Association.Read more…
Hawking Our Wares in the Marketplace of Values – Sell Quality Not Cost When Promoting Mediation; The Interplay of Global Norms of Justice and Harmony in the Mediation Forum – The Fordham Papers 2011, Martinus Nijoff Publishers (Arthur W. Rovine, Editor) (2012)Stressing that the mediation process offers greater value than simply saving time and cost, and, among other things, drawing on global culture to observe that mediation is a forum in which we may integrate norms of justice and harmony.Read more…

News, ADR Applications, Courts & Bar Developments

A New Section for Dispute ResolutionThe New York Law Journal presents an article by Simeon H. Baum, chair of the Dispute Resolution SectionRead more…
A Special Message from the Founding Chair: A Passing of the HossuNYSBA’s New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer presents an article by Simeon H. Baum, founding chair of the Dispute Resolution SectionRead more…
Laboring in Legal Vineyards as Service to Whole PersonsThe New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer Fall 2009 Vol. 2: Message from the Chair Simeon H. BaumRead more…
A Message from Chair on Launch of NYSBA’s NY Dispute Resolution LawyerThe New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer Fall 2008 Vol. 1: Message from the Chair Simeon H. BaumRead more…
NYSBA Creation of Dispute Resolution SectionPast President James C. Moore of Rochester (Harter Secrest & Emery LLP), chair of the Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution, presented the committee’s resolution…Read more…
Mediation Settles Dispute in Freedom Tower FeesLong-time NYCLA member Simeon H. Baum, President of Resolve Mediation Services, Inc. (www.mediators.com), made news in October 2004 for his role in the settlement of Studio Daniel…Read more…
The Benefits of Mediation Illustrated – Settlement of World Trade Center LawsuitCommercial Division Piece on Mediation of Liebeskind/Silverstein WTC Freedom Tower Design Fees Matter.Read more…
Vornado Goes Both East and West for a DealCommercial Division – NY Times Piece on Mediation of Trump/Vornado Case involving Penn Yards/West Side Trump Properties.Read more…
Encouraging Success of ADR in the United States District CourtArticle describing the Encouraging Success of ADR in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, with Recommendations on how to utilize available ADR programs and to pursue continuation of ADR programs even after the sunset of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 which provided for funding of these programs in the federal courts.Read more…
NY SuperLawyers & Best LawyersNY Super LawyersRead more…

Personal Insights and Bird’s Eye Views

Remembering Chuck Newman Summoning Chuck Newman: Brilliant Mind, Great and Warm Heart, Generous Engagement with CommunityRead more…
The Interview: A Chat with Simeon BaumOn the year’s most quiet Monday, December 23rd, just before the Christmas/Winter break, I sat down with Simeon Baum to discuss his career and his ideas about mediation…Read more…
Lessons from Russian Mediators – Contemporary Issues in International Arbitration and Mediation – The Fordham Papers 2010 (Arthur W. Rovine, Editor) (2011) Reflections on attendance at a conference to discuss a bill before the Russian Duma on establishing a state sponsored mediation program.Read more…
A Week at the War College:A Mediator’s Memorial Day Reflections By Simeon H. Baum (September 2015)Read more…
Book Review: The College of Commercial Arbitrators Guide to Best Practices in Commercial Arbitration Taking a Test Drive Down the Highways and By-Ways of Best Practices (4th Edition)Read more…
Book Review: Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts (Third Edition)A Handy Resource for the Commercial ADR Neutral and Professional, Reviewed by Simeon H. Baum, New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer, Fall 2013Read more…Bar and ADR Associations