Advocacy & Negotiation
Broadly speaking, negotiation is an interaction of influences. Such interactions, for example, include the process of resolving disputes, agreeing upon courses of action, bargaining for individual or collective advantage, or crafting outcomes to satisfy various interests. Negotiation is thus a form of alternative dispute resolution.
Negotiation involves two basic elements: the process and the substance. The process refers to how the parties negotiate: the context of the negotiations, the parties to the negotiations, the relationships among these parties, the communication between these parties, the tactics used by the parties, and the sequence and stages in which all of these play out. The substance, however, refers to what the parties negotiate over: the agenda, the issues, the options, and the agreement(s) reached at the end.
In the advocacy approach, a skilled negotiator usually serves as advocate for one party to the negotiation and attempts to obtain the most favorable outcomes possible for that party. In this process the negotiator attempts to determine the minimum outcome(s) the other party is (or parties are) willing to accept, then adjusts their demands accordingly. A "successful" negotiation in the advocacy approach is when the negotiator is able to obtain all or most of the outcomes their party desires, but without driving the other party to permanently break off negotiations.
Traditional negotiating is sometimes called win-lose because of the assumption of a fixed "pie", that one person's gain results in another person's loss. This is only true, however, if only a single issue needs to be resolved, such as a price in a simple sales negotiation. If multiple issues are discussed, differences in the parties' preferences make win-win negotiation possible. For example, in a labor negotiation, the union might prefer job security over wage gains. If the employers have opposite preferences, a trade is possible that is beneficial to both parties. Such a negotiation is therefore not an adversarial zero-sum game.
How We Serve Our Clients
Our dynamic and resourceful attorneys are skilled in the art of business negotiation and conflict resolution. We work closely with our business clientele to develop a win-win strategy to help resolve the conflict to the benefit of our client, and when possible maintain the business relationship between the parties.
