From Zero to Hero

I get my best insights into how lawyers see mediators when I occasionally share a ride to the airport with one of them after a mediation (yeah I know, but I always check with the group and then only if we have got a result).

Today, unprompted, my colleague shared with me and the cab driver that the most impressive thing about a mediator who's on their game is the ability to go from a standing start to 100kph on the facts that the lawyers have lived with for months - and once there, to apply some rigour before bottom-lining the big points to focus the parties on what's important to their decision some hours away; legal, factual and especially commercial.

My rather lame response, before letting him pay, was to admit to being a speed freak (just in case I was in his sample group, which he was not good enough to volunteer).