In the business world, other models of mediation have developed with other priorities and values suited far better to the needs of business lawyers, their clients and their cases. Mediation is about clarity, not unprincipled compromise. Mediation is about progress, not unachievable peace. Directness and honesty . In many business cases, stakes are high, relationships between the parties have long histories and emotions run deep.
Every legal conflict has aspects beyond the legally cognizable claims and defenses.
Be they financial, emotional, relational or otherwise, these aspects may be the most significant to the parties. The best advocates not only understand this, but accept it and give it its due. Rather, the client probably came in with a story, probably longer than the lawyer wanted to hear, that was a narrative history of the parties' relationship. That story provides a complete context, of which the present conflict is only a part, and without which the present conflict is difficult fully to understand. From this first account, the advocate cuts, pastes and weaves pieces of the story into the templates of legal claims and defenses.