My wife called out from the other room to ask if I had a stabbing pain in my chest like someone had a voodoo doll of me and was stabbing it. I said no. She said, “How about now?”

Studies have shown that suppressing emotion often impairs cognitive processing. A better approach may be to consider in advance when your opponent’s words or actions may raise such feelings, then use that as a way to provide important information on what the other side values. You can then adjust aspects of future proposals accordingly.

My thanks to the Harvard Program on Negotiation for the thoughts shared here.

When you argue a matter before the court, discuss both sides. You will enhance your credibility and perhaps take the wind out of the sails of your opposition. And also (thank you to Tania Bartolini for this thought) gain the respect of the Court!

Maintain a good relationship with opposing counsel.  Remember, a reputation is easy to get and hard to repair.

Per David M. Levine, an experienced litigator of international matters and co-chair of the International Ethics Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law, United States lawyers should always be mindful of cultural considerations when mediating disputes involving parties from other countries. In a mediation involving international parties, one should go into a mediation understanding the other side’s background, communication style, and potentially divergent legal system to avoid letting these differences interfere with the parties’ ability to reach an amicable resolution to their global dispute.

Suggested by senior partner of EPGD Law, Eric Gros-Dubois:  Threatening an F.S.§57.105 filing.  Rarely appropriate.  And even if appropriate, rarely granted.  You want to be taken seriously.  Minor missteps like this can affect your reputation.

A good rule: Choose the job you least want to start – and do it first. I’m not perfect at it, but I try.

When drafting a pleading or any other document, be aware that abbreviating 2020 to just “20″ might be a problem.  It allows villains to add two numbers after the “20″ to make your date reference appear to be earlier or later than intended; i.e., “1/15/20″ might become “1/15/2019″ or “1/15/2022″.

So much to say. First, thank you for making 2019 my best year ever as a mediator. Building a mediation practice over the past 13 years has been a slow process but the word on Mediatorman has spread. To those who have graced me with their mediations, thank you. My promise to you is to continue to be a mediator who leaves no stone unturned in trying to make the process worthwhile and achieve a resolution. Working with you has been a joy.

Second, I wish you all good things. Good health, where everything starts, and peace, prosperity and happiness in your personal and professional lives.

Finally, here’s to 2020. May we meet it’s challenges with strength and courage. May it be a good year for all people of good will.

Quoting from an opinion by Alan Schwartz, the Honorable Thomas Rebull, accepting the Alan R. Schwartz award for Judicial Excellence from the Dade County Bar Association:  Too many members of the Bar practice with complete ignorance of or disdain for the basic principle that a lawyer’s duty to his calling and to the administration of justice far outweighs–and must outweigh–even his obligation to his client, and, surely what we suspect really motivates many such inappropriate actions, his interest in his personal aggrandizement.