But the grail of settlement should not divert attention from the usefulness of mediation as a tool for effective client counseling. Lawyers who use mediation this way have performed their duties as the zealous advocate well, settlement or not. In the business world, such a goal is unrealistic at best and a waste of time at worst. If this is indeed mediation's true goal, then lawyers would be correct to avoid it. In actual practice, though, business mediators understand that most parties and counsel are not interested in the pursuit of dream worlds.
Mediators understand that a model with that goal is unrealistic and almost always doomed to fail.
It is instead a facilitation of progress. The world, the economy, our clients' industries and companies, even our clients themselves are in constant states of flux, change and growth. New challenges and opportunities are invented every minute. The goal is to meet as many challenges and take advantage of as many opportunities as we can, as well as we can, and as efficiently as we can. Nor do reasonable clients expect more.