Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser–in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will be business enough.
Abraham Lincoln, Notes for a Law Lecture, 1850
I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby–not even money, certainly not my soul.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, 1927
James Strock brings a wealth of experience as a practitioner and educator on negotiation and communication, to assist clients in the roles of:
Facilitator/ Convenor–bringing disparate parties together in structured communications to yield areas of prospective consensus;
Mediator–bringing parties together in a structured negotiation to assist them in reaching voluntary agreements to resolve a conflict; and
Negotiator–representing the interests of one or more parties in a multiple stakeholder transaction or relationship.
Relevant Experience
Service as mediator, facilitator/convenor, and negotiator in transactions and relationships involving public, private and non-governmental organizations, both domestic and international. Have served in range of subject matter areas, from environment/energy to commercial/contract/tort (not including family/divorce).
Education & Training
Harvard College (A.B.); Harvard Law School (J.D.). Prior service as trained and certified mediator in state and federal courts in California. Also received training at Harvard Law School Project on Negotiation, Senior Executives Program, and Mediation Institute course led by Steven Rosenberg, J.D., Mill Valley, California.
Fee Schedule Available on Request.
