Robert Mnookin Encourages Lawyers To CREATE VALUE THROUGH NEGOTIATION
As the featured speaker in the 9th Annual Edward B. Shils Lecture on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution, Robert H. Mnookin, Samuel Willston Professor of Law at Harvard, promoted the themes of his new book Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value In Deals and Disputes (co-authors, Scott Pepper and Andrew Tulumello) (Harvard University Press, 2000). Throughout his lecture, “How Lawyers Can Create Value Through Negotiations,” Mnookin encouraged lawyers to be problem solvers. “Lawyers best represent their clients by creating value and by increasing the size of the pie rather than fighting over the slices.” He identified tensions between creating value and distributing value; between empathy and assertion; and between principals and agents, that make a lawyer’s job a challenge. He addressed the challenge of legal culture which he stated “doesn’t really support problem solving.” In conclusion, Mnookin stated that he wanted to explode three myths, as he defined them: to those who would suggest that there is no relevant theory for negotiations he would tell them to look to the social sciences, specifically economics, cognitive psychology, and social psychology. That lawyers simply learn from experience – “we develop habits or standard operating procedures that we don’t learn from and cause us to blame the other side.” Finally, he believes it is a myth that negotiation cannot be taught. “I see it like being a track coach – help people to soar with their strengths and manage their weaknesses.”
The Edward
B. Shils Professorship was established by friends, family, and colleagues
of Dr. Shils, the George W. Taylor Professor Emeritus at the Wharton
School, and holder of six earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania,
including a J.D. (1986), an LL.M. (1990), and an S.J.D. (1997). |
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