This past August, the firm's lawyers attended the Advanced Family Law Course in Dallas.  One of the speakers, Guhan Subramanian, spoke on the topic of interest-based negotiation.  Subramanian is a tenured Harvard law and business school professor and one of our country's experts on the subject of negotiations. 

He reported that negotiations generally fall into 1 of 3 categories:  interest-based, rights-based, or power-based.  Interest-based negotiation focuses on the future.  Rights-based negotiation focuses on the law and what would happen in court.  Power-based negotiation focuses on who has the power.  His years of research show that interest-based negotiation generally results in a much better agreement for all parties than a traditional rights and power negotiation.  In addition, his research shows that as parties move away from interest-based negotiation and toward rights and power negotiation, they are less satisfied with the end result. 

The Collaborative process distinguishes itself from other dispute resolution methods by its use of interest-based negotiation. 5 of the 6 lawyers at this firm have been trained in the Collaborative process and offer the process to their clients.  For more information about the Collaborative process, click on "Providing Options" on this website's home page.