{"id":27493,"date":"2022-02-17T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T00:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/?page_id=27493"},"modified":"2022-02-17T19:24:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T00:24:01","slug":"25-pr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/guidance\/adrguide-home\/25-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"Party Representatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-1 fusion-title-text fusion-title-size-two\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:31px;margin-left:0px;\"><h2 class=\"title-heading-left\" style=\"margin:0;\">Party Representatives<\/h2><span class=\"awb-title-spacer\"><\/span><div class=\"title-sep-container\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#e0dede;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><div dir=\"ltr\">\n<div>The party representative, as used here, refers to a person who can commit his or her organization to completely settle a controversy. \u00a0It does not refer to a lawyer or other advocate, whose primary role is to present their party’s side of a conflict.\u00a0 Many considerations come into play when selecting a party representative.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><strong><u>First Level Decision-Makers vs. Higher Level Managers<\/u>?<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>People involved in the underlying transactions leading to the protest or claim obviously bring to the negotiation table their firsthand knowledge of the underlying facts that drive a controversy. \u00a0This can be beneficial during a fact finding phase of an ADR, but it can be detrimental to reaching a negotiated resolution because such people tend to be emotionally tied to the dispute or its outcome. \u00a0It may be preferable, therefore, that the party representative be somebody at a higher level in the organization, i.e., somebody who was not involved directly in the evaluation or award of the contract at issue (for bid protests) or in the day-to-day administration of the contract (for claims or appeals). \u00a0Presumably, such people can maintain a certain degree of objectivity during the course of the ADR proceeding.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><u><strong>Factual Knowledge<\/strong><\/u><\/div>\n<div>Regardless of who is the representative that will make negotiation decisions, each party should have the people with direct first-hand knowledge of the facts attend the ADR proceeding.\u00a0 Their participation is key in helping the principal understand the other side\u2019s position.\u00a0 Similarly, these people can also\u00a0help the neutral to more accurately assess the strengths and weaknesses of the other side\u2019s position.\u00a0 This is critical where credibility becomes an issue.\u00a0 Another reason to include the people who have been involved in the issue since its inception is that this can bring about some emotional closure.\u00a0 Finally, negotiators and\u00a0neutrals\u00a0should consider whether every factually knowledgeable person is a necessary participant in the negotiation phase of an ADR proceeding.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><strong><u>The Negotiation Team<\/u><\/strong><\/div>\n<div>While a large number of people may hinder negotiations, other considerations dictate how many people to bring. \u00a0Some negotiators firmly believe that bringing more people on their side creates a beneficial “herd effect” \u00a0or “group-think” that steers the discussions in their favor; indeed, it is much harder for one person to say no when everybody else is saying yes.\u00a0 The key question is who is needed for a productive negotiation?\u00a0 Some factually knowledgeable people need to attend, and so should decision-makers.\u00a0 Further, if the true decision-maker is not at the table, he or she does not have the full benefit of the process and is making decisions without a complete assessment of the facts. \u00a0Secondhand justifications to absent decision-makers do not convey the full picture of the ADR process.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":27194,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27493\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adr.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}