Interview of Mark Baumann about law and mediation

The first time I spoke at the Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference, I very much enjoyed spending some time with Mark Baumann. Because I valued that time, I was happy to read a recent interview of Mark. You may read it too . . .

From "An Integrated approach to a law and mediation career" (Examiner.com):

Q: I understand you practice law and mediation with a different approach?

Right. For the first 10 years of my practice I approached cases involving interpersonal problems in a typical lawyer fashion: finding the “facts", identifying the legal issues and applying the relevant law with logic to solve what appeared to be the problems. Then I had a case that taught me why that doesn’t always provide good outcomes --or real justice-- and about the significance of the human part of the equation.

A lot of times we are not fully aware of what our real needs are. Lawyers can help find those needs by deeply, compassionately, and non-judgmentally listening, and by respecting individual choice. When clients “feel understood” and respected, solutions tend to come much easier, and they tend be better solutions. And, this is especially true in difficult high conflict cases.

Q: Is there a model you use?

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