Negotiation skills for Lawyers

Overview: 

This is a specialist course for modern lawyers and legal negotiators.   We will divide our time into 3 modules that will prepare legal professionals to approach 

 Negotiating basics - Strategy and Tactics.

• We introduce the course with an overview of the basic negotiating process.  Every negotiation is an interplay between strategy and tactics.  In this class, we will focus on the most important tactics for legal professionals.  We will also discuss a number of strategic approaches common among legal negotiators.

Legal focus

• Lawyers have a different set of objectives and approaches than business negotiators.  The basic toolkit of Tactics and Strategies is the same, but the applications are highly specialized.
• Objectives and focus.  Lawyers advocate for their clients or organizations.  Win-Win sounds great in theory, but lawyers must be laser-focused on their clients’ interests.
• Approach and Style.  Lawyers need the ability to be adversarial when the situation calls for it, and conciliatory when that serves their interests.  Good negotiators know how to analyze the situation and choose the right approach before they start negotiating.  You will lelarn how to identify goals and build effective strategies in this class.
• Risk Management.  Lawyers are expected to minimize risk and plot the safest course for their client or organization.  We will learn strategies and tactics for reducing risk in legal negotiation.

• AI and LLMs are already mainstream in the legal profession.  We will learn tools and techniques for effectively using new tech to save time and improve outcomes.  Our focus in this class will be ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini & Notebook LM, but these methods will apply to all AI technology.  

Course Objective: 

Participants will leave this course with basic knowledge of negotiating with clients - and against adversaries.  

Target Audience: 

This course is designed for legal professionals.

Basic Knowledge: 

Participants should have basic knowledge of the legal profession.  It would also be helpful to have familiarity with basic negotiating techniques and some experience with AI platforms like ChatGPT.