Articles
Desert Island Questions for Mediators
Undoubtedly questions are just tools which, in the wrong hands, go unnoticed and unanswered. However, when those same questions are asked with the artistry of a skilled and patient mediator, they constitute rigorous, peel back the onion layer type questions so necessary in the resolution of complex business disputes between articulate, pragmatic and impatient commercial participants.
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Where Angels Fear to Tread
The Tricky Matter of How a Commercial Mediator Shows Respect for the Attorney/Client Relationship
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I Know It's Not My Problem... But It Happened On My Watch
It is at some risk that I set out to promote my expertise in the area of what to do when mediation ends in disagreement.
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The Legal Scholarship of Blogs
If you’ve ever felt the need to share your opinions with the world, then blogs just may provide you with the global audience you’ve been longing for. Geoff Sharp surfs the wave of the future and finds out the skinny on blawging
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Five things I learnt this year (and should have known already)
LEADR Fellow Geoff Sharp reflects on 2008 and the lessons learnt. Here he pulls together thoughts from his well known blog, mediator blah...blah...
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LEADR Fellow Geoff Sharp calls for urgent rethink of state-funded mediation in New Zealand civil courts
LEADR Fellow Geoff Sharp calls for urgent rethink of state-funded mediation in New Zealand civil courts
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Benefits of Agreeing to Disagree
A good mediator, Mr Sharp said, was someone who had a knowledgeable background, was willing to persevere and was aware of people's "positions" compared to their "interests". In other words, a person might want $10 but it was why they wanted $10 which was often more useful. Having good "antennae" and an ability to read between the lines was also important.
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In Praise of Joint Sessions
This article, which is written in the context of mediating the litigated case, deals with this increasing trend amongst mediators to do away with a joint session and adopt a shuttle mediation model. This is an especially topical debate amongst mediators with some advocating that a purely caucus model saves time and is what the market now requires. This compares with other mediators resisting the demise of the joint session, saying it is at the heart of what we do and of what mediation is.
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Rugby World Cup 2011
We are in the midst of the Rugby World Cup 2011 down here in New Zealand – which may not mean much to those nations not playing the ‘great game’ but the tournament is the 3rd largest global sporting event after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics so you can only imagine the impact it has on a country of only 4 million people.
My city in recent weeks has been overrun by Welsh fans in song, Scotsmen with their colourful kilts and no knickers, English from the mother country, Fijians shivering in the Wellington weather and scary looking Russians in sunglasses ...
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