"Speed Dating" Makes Its Way to Mediation

I often wonder how mediators are selected.

When I practiced law I had a clear sense of how clients arrived at my door.  It was generally through word of mouth.  I worked hard for a client and obtained a good result and that client referred me to a colleague, friend or family member.  It was all very straightforward.

Now that I’m in the mediation business I figured the same basic principles would apply.  To a great extent they do – hard work and results produce referrals.  But, I have also found that being someone’s preferred mediator does not
always result in a new file.  That’s because in a mediation file there is always at least one other party involved in the dispute and that party (or parties) may have their own preferred mediator in mind.  I understand that it is not uncommon when scheduling a mediation for each side to exchange a list of preferred mediators and if there isn’t a common name on the lists the parties then select someone who is not on the lists to conduct the mediation.  

Tough to build a business development model around that selection process.

A commercial mediation group based in the United Kingdom is interested in this issue and it recently took a novel approach to explore it. The group held an evening of “speed dating” between top-tier mediators and commercial litigators from selected firms, to help expand the pool of mediators that the litigators would use.  For those unfamiliar, speed dating is a formalized matchmaking process or dating system whose purpose is to encourage people to meet a large number of new people through a series of mini-dates over a short period of time.

In this case, the speed dating process involved one-on-one sessions between litigators and mediators that lasted 8
minutes.  During each session the litigators were encouraged to ask the mediators questions about various topics
including their experience and approach to mediation.  After the 8 minutes, the litigators rotated to their next “date” and the process continued. Feedback from the discussions indicate that most law firms rely regularly on only three to six mediators for commercial disputes, but would like to have a larger number available.  The group is considering the creation of a secure electronic database for its members that would include information on mediators and feedback on mediator performance. 

And I thought my dating days were over.  

To read more about this unique speed dating event see Update From The Commercial Mediation Group: Taking Matters Forward, which appears in the February 8, 2013 edition of the Kluwer Mediation Blog.