I grew up in the 1960s and 70s where music and art were transforming the world with strong inflections of missionary zeal for disruption and harmony. While it is not completely accurate to compare the work of mediators to musicians, understanding the parallel structures about listening and teamwork help enlighten our future.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has held that an arbitrator exceeded his authority in a contract dispute.

In order to help the parties reach their goals, sometimes the most effective and transparent exchange of information occurs early on and privately, before the parties ever have a chance to meet each other in a joint session. If that works, why not use it? If it doesn’t work, mediators always have other tools to use, including various hybrid forms of joint meetings to call upon.

The idealists in the mediation movement have struggled to maintain the vision of the forefathers and foremothers who discovered the process. This has led to a complicated but critical discussion about which parts of the process are working and which are not. The central focus of the process that has been under scrutiny is whether or not to conduct a joint session, a key communication piece of the process.