Why Do Women Hate Negotiating?

Last week, the Washington Post had an article on its blog with this title reviewing the depressing research that women “don’t ask” at the same rate as men and exploring why this might be so.  After all, as the author notes, women are negotiating every day at home — why do we choose not to do this in the workplace?  Selena Rezvani notes that her own research on top executives shows that top women learned to negotiate through experience and that

Negotiating isn’t just one of several leadership competencies, it is the most important tool at women’s disposal.  A woman can work on being well networked or technically brilliant, but without the ability to ask, she has nothing.

I couldn’t agree more — we all need to be negotiating more effectively. 

Continue ReadingWhy Do Women Hate Negotiating?

Negotiation Advice from an International Arbitrator

Last week, I was delighted to welcome Lucy Reed, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and co-chair of their international arbitration group as our inaugural speaker for our speakers series on Gender & Negotiation, funded by the University Centennial Celebration Fund to celebrate 100 years of women at Marquette.  Lucy has an amazing background in both the private and public sector.  She has served as a Commissioner of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Claims Commission and co-director of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland.  She was the U.S. Agent to the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and also general counsel of the Korean Pennisula Energy Development Organization (the organization negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear plants.)  Her private sector work currently focuses on investment treaty arbitrations and other public international law disputes. 

Continue ReadingNegotiation Advice from an International Arbitrator

Foreclosure Mediation Take 2?

I am grateful to Paul Kirgis (in this post) for restarting the discussion on foreclosure mediation—it is useful to keep revisiting what is working and what is not.

The New York Times article he cites is interesting in a number of ways. First, as Paul notes, it confuses the process of mediation with the underlying applicable law. Mediation—voluntary as in our program or mandatory as in Nevada—occurs in the shadow of HAMP and other regulations and financial realities governing the ability of the parties to make loan modifications.

Second, the article highlights some of the issues with mandatory mediation where, it appears, there are a whole bunch of lenders showing up with little interest, or even ability, to modify the mortgages.  

Continue ReadingForeclosure Mediation Take 2?