Category Archives: Dispute Resolution Resources

Zeytoonian new Director of ADR at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Michael Zeytoonian

After 10 years as founder and principle of Dispute Resolution Counsel, LLC, Michael Zeytoonian has accepted a newly created position as the Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), joining the MCAD in June, 2019. This new role at the MCAD is the perfect challenge for Michael, combining work in his favorite area of …

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Before you dive into your dispute, what are your GINs and what’s the best way to satisfy them?

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Michael Zeytoonian

Recently I noticed an online request on a network’s posting system seeking lawyers with experience working on disputes within community non-profit or religious organizations. The situation described involved potentially inappropriate behavior by a member of the organization that may have adversely impacted another member. Besides these two people, the entire organization is also a stakeholder, as the incident raised the …

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Satisfying our clients’ emotional due process needs

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Michael Zeytoonian

Emotional due process. What is that, exactly? This notion – emotional due process – jumped out at me when I recently came across it in a report about the September 2018 Global Collaborative Law Council’s (GCLC) annual conference. GCLC President Melanie Atha, a lawyer from Birmingham, Alabama, noted that Collaborative Law can satisfy the need clients in a dispute have …

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It’s our choice: Are we agents of connecting and reuniting or separating and dividing?

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Michael Zeytoonian

In the past few months, a recurring idea has kept surfacing, either in the news or in my life experiences as a mediator and lawyer. It’s the tendency toward division, of focusing and acting more on our differences than on what we have in common. Our lives today are influenced more by partisan and separatist views than the spirit of …

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Is an adversarial process our best and highest good? The case for early mediation

Posted on January 16, 2018 by adminDRC

Disputes are a part of life.  On all levels, in most relationships, we disagree about things. Disputes come up between spouses, siblings, parents & children, business partners, political parties/views, employers & employees, economic classes, races, genders, age groups, ethnic groups, religious denominations, and on and on.  Unless we are mindless clones or in a controlled society, conflict is normal and …

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Now More Than Ever – The Growing Need For Dispute Resolution

Posted on October 27, 2017 by adminDRC

Last week (October 16-20), lawyers and dispute resolution professionals around the country celebrated Conflict Resolution Week. In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bar Association, through its Dispute Resolution Section, presented five different events, one each day, each in a different part of the state and each with a different focus. Over 400 people attended these state-wide events, including judges, lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, …

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Massachusetts Bar Association’s Conflict Resolution Week & Day Celebration October 16-20

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Michael Zeytoonian

An annual national tradition in the legal community is the celebration of “Conflict Resolution Week” (CRW) and “Conflict Resolution Day” (CRD) on the third week and the third Thursday of October respectively.  This tradition reportedly started here in New England by the New England Association for Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR).  It is a week and a day to shine a spotlight …

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Posted in Collaborative Law, Collaborative Mediation, conflict, Creative Solutions, Dispute Resolution Advocacy, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA), Mediation, Preserving Relationships, Respect and civility, Settlement Counsel | Comments Off

What is your goal? Winning or fixing?

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Michael Zeytoonian

What do you want? It’s a pretty simple question, really.  It reminds me of what Noah (Ryan Gosling) repeatedly asked Allie (Rachel McAdams), his love interest in The Notebook.  She kept hemming and hawing as to how difficult her situation was, having to choose between two good men, and that there was no easy answer.  But he stayed laser focused …

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Posted in conflict, Creative Solutions, Dispute Resolution Advocacy, Dispute Resolution Process, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, Employment Disputes, Respect and civility, teamwork, Workplace Disputes | Comments Off

If You Want Your “Day in Court”, Don’t Go to Court

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Michael Zeytoonian

“I want my day in court.” This is one of the most frequent desires and sentiments expressed by a new client in our initial conversation about their legal dispute.   Here are some other common emotional responses when someone finds themselves in a dispute: “I want justice to be done.”  “The other side has to pay for what he/she/it did to …

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Posted in Collaborative Law, Collaborative Mediation, conflict, Dispute Resolution Process, Dispute Resolution Resources, Efficient dispute resolution, Employment Disputes, Employment Law, Perspectives, Preserving Relationships, resolution, Respect and civility, Settlement Counsel, Workplace Disputes | Comments Off

The Case for Early Mediation; Part II of II

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Michael Zeytoonian

In our last blog post, the first in this two-part post about the case for early mediation, we discussed traditional, post-discovery mediation and its role as essentially an alternative to trial.  In this post, we look at the kind of mediation we are proponents of – early mediation (we call ours “3-D Mediation”) – used either as an alternative to …

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