Thomas P Valenti Dispute Resolution Office

09/29/2026

"deposition summaries, chronologies, first drafts, research, a “sparring partner in litigation.”

Adoption is up, but digging into DISCO's Legal AI Report reveals the industry isn't giving it the most worrying work.

09/16/2026

None of this argues for abstention, and mediators who treat the technology as beneath them will simply be outworked.

The legitimate uses are substantial and mostly pre-session: building a chronology from a document-heavy file, reconciling two parties’ competing factual accounts into a single comparison, producing a first-pass issue list the mediator then rejects half of, translation, plain-language explanation of an unfamiliar technical or regulatory regime, drafting term-sheet language for the mediator to edit, and generating a wider option set than one tired person produces at 6 p.m. Administrative functions — scheduling, intake, invoicing — are easier still, provided personal identifying information stays out.

Part Two: What AI Cannot Do for the Mediator

09/14/2026

The CEOs of Delta, United, and Southwest agree: a calendar packed full of long meetings is not a recipe for success

“Reading, I think, is the number one thing you can do to connect dots, which I think I’m good at that other people don’t see,” Kirby said.

09/14/2026

Who Signs the Award?

Part two of a four-part series on the Pro-Human AI Declaration. Part one asked what kind of object the declaration is. This part takes the phrase at its center — “meaningful human control” — and argues that it is not an engineering problem but a legal one, and an old one.

09/14/2026

For mediators and negotiators, this is a useful reminder that persuasion often begins with curiosity, not argument. The research suggests that asking someone to explain why they see the situation as they do can increase openness on both sides.
Stanford researchers find a single question could be the key to changing someone's mind.

We often feel pressure to respond with better facts, stronger logic, or a more compelling argument. But sometimes the most productive move is much simpler:

“Tell me more about how you got there.”

That is not agreement. It is an invitation to understand—and understanding is often where movement begins.

Curiosity goes a lot further than we might think.

09/11/2026

The alternative is not longer days. It is the recovery of an older and truer idea: that mediation is a managed process of which meetings are components, not the thing itself.

In practice, that looks less exotic than it sounds. It begins with a diagnostic phase in which the mediator, appointed early, works with the parties to map the real obstacles to settlement, whether they be informational, structural, relational, or political, before anyone books a conference suite. It continues with designed exchange: not disclosure in the litigation sense, but targeted, proportionate steps that make responsible evaluation possible, agreed and supervised within the mediation. It proceeds through sequenced sessions: some plenary, some bilateral, some involving only principals, some only experts, all arranged around the settlement geometry of the case and the approval rhythms of the parties. It uses interim agreements deliberately: standstills, project-preservation measures, partial settlements, agreed frameworks initialled subject to board confirmation. And it treats implementation as part of the process, with the mediator retained through documentation and, where relationships continue, available for review points thereafter.

There is a ritual most readers of this magazine will recognise. The parties arrive at eight-thirty. Opening session by ten, if there is one at all…

09/07/2026

When you’re more tightly bound to an agreement than your counterpart is, trouble could follow in negotiation. Manage your escalation of commitment—and level the playing field.

09/04/2026

"If you match the heat, you do nothing but stoke a raging fire. When you take the heat out of it and respond calmly and factually, you change the dynamic entirely."

Well-structured meetings rarely spiral into personal attacks.

08/04/2026

Loyola University Chicago School of Law leaped from 14th to claim the top spot.

Moot court is a special breed of law school activity because it’s the closest analogue to actual law practice during the three-year process. The difference is that it allows students to refine the art of arguing a case without having to worry about real-world consequences.

07/28/2026

"Not because we don’t care. Not because we aren’t paying attention. Because we rarely stop long enough to understand how clients actually experience legal."

Expertise without curiosity becomes brittle.