Mediation Skills

This online course focusses on mediation in commercial and cross‑border disputes, emphasizing the skills lawyers use to resolve matters efficiently outside the courtroom. Students will examine how mediation differs from litigation and arbitration, learn the mediator’s role, and familiarize themselves with the stages of a formal mediation. The course is highly interactive, teaching participants to apply negotiation concepts, prepare mediation briefs, and practice various roles (mediator, counsel, party) during openings, joint sessions, caucuses, and settlement drafting. Additional focus is given to cross‑cultural communication and language issues, as well as to ethical issues such as dealing with confidentiality, neutrality, conflicts of interest, and power imbalances. The course culminates in a comprehensive simulation of an international commercial dispute from opening statements to a drafted settlement agreement, leaving participants with practical experience useful for transactional lawyers, litigators, and in-house lawyers alike.