Mediation: Know whom you’re persuading

As published in The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

​You’ve got a case headed to mediation — so what can you do to make sure that process is a success for your client? Here’s a few tips, straight from a former judge-turned-mediator:

• Prepare a memo that you can give your opponent. Mediators read wonderful, persuasive memos. But persuading the mediator doesn’t get the deal done. Use those persuasion skills to show your opponent what he’s up against.

That fabulous fact or argument you want to spring at trial? If you don’t use it in your mediation memo, the chances are 98 percent that no one will ever hear it, since less than 2 percent of cases are ever tried.

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