Glienicke Bridge

Bridge of Spies: A Universal Lesson in Negotiation

7 years ago 1 12808

Let’s put aside historical accuracy. Any of the historical “revisions” in Stephen Spielberg’s film, Bridge of Spies, do not affect the brilliant but simple art of negotiation masterminded by the main character of the film and star of the negotiation. As the film opens, lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) works

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Mediation

We Mediate Without Even Knowing It

8 years ago 0 7700

  Yes, mediation is a profession. We need mediation. And we need trained mediators. Even so, the practice has seeped deeply into the culture over the past few decades. almost unexpectedly practically unknowingly to most of us. Mediation as we know it today got its start slightly more than half a century ago

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Man Makes Money Matters a Mystery to Wife–My Take on Dear Abby

8 years ago 0 3471

The comments in red and deleted text are my way of encouraging IN THE DARK IN NEW JERSEY, who actually wrote to Dear Abby in May, to empower herself to be more assertive in addressing the state of her marital assets and plan for her future. What are your thoughts

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Mindful Lawyering — Does Such a Thing Exist?

8 years ago 1 3843

Last week I attended a mindful lawyering retreat along with 70 other interested attorneys and judges. I  pause here for a moment to allow you to snicker at the thought. . . . Any non-lawyer I told this to did just that, and then good-naturedly listened. But it’s true. We

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cloud

Estate Planning and Cloud Files: When Going Paperless Means Going Without Knowing

9 years ago 0 2533

How many times in a given day are we asked to ‘go paperless’ for our most important transactions, with our bank and financial institution monthly or quarterly statement.  Several months ago I opened a probate estate account for a client family. When the first month’s bank statements arrived, there was

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A Separation

A Separation: A Not So Foreign Film

9 years ago 0 2569

This Iranian drama is the story of a middle class, urban couple that is in the process of separating. The wife, Simin, has had enough. It appears to be that her widowed father-in-law whose dementia and total dependence on Simin and his son, Nadér, pushes her out the door. This

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Weighing College

College is Not a Waste of Time and Money

9 years ago 0 2657

No, Dr. Reich, college is not a waste of time and money. At least it was not. And it shouldn’t be today. It’s funny that I said this same thing some four and a half decades ago about high school. My high school taught me Latin, English grammar and writing.

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Train Travel

Destination: Adulthood

9 years ago 0 2388

I was traveling on a train in another country when it turned out that a young couple from Arizona sat next to me. We exchanged greetings and sort of established ourselves with each other. They both work for Whole Foods, Inc. They liked what most would consider to be exotic

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AFCC Conference

Ohio AFCC Inaugural Event: Breaking the Cycle of Family Violence

9 years ago 0 2498

I attended the launch of the Ohio Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) on April 24, 2014. AFCC describes itself as “the premier interdisciplinary and international association of professionals dedicated to the resolution of family conflict.” It advocates respect and the empowerment of families so they decide

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Relationships Are Not “Broken”

10 years ago 2 2270

Changing the Paradigm of “Broken” Relationships I try to stay away from calling relationships that at one time were intimate or relationships that produced children as “broken.” We need to change the paradigm. Those relationships are no longer what they were, but they didn’t break, per se. They ended as intimate

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