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Are lawyers
excellent mediators ?
Mediaton
(in civil and commercial matters)

Ankara Bar Association – ADR Center
Ankara - Turkey

Paul WOUTERS - Advocaat

Are lawyers excellent mediators ?
Statement :

Mediators help people solve their disputes

Question :

Lawyers are supposed to be “dispute
solvers” – are they “natural mediators” ?


Lawyers are excellent mediators !
Presumption:
Presumption: Lawyers are trained in psychology
• They know how people make decisions and behave

Presumption:
Presumption: Lawyers are trained in sociology
• They know how society is organized and functions

Presumption:
Presumption: Lawyers are trained in philosophy
• they know what touches and motivates the inside of
man


People go to lawyers for advice and help because
they respect and trust lawyers

People expect lawyers to help solve their
problems

Lawyers help landlords and tenants, husbands
and wives, criminals and victims: they are trained
to see the “different sides of a coin”

Lawyers know how to “find and balance the
truth”

Lawyers know the rules of how to draft valid
contracts

Lawyers know of public law, what can be done
law,
and what is legal or not legal

Lawyers know how to formulate agreements in
clear words, so their is no dispute possible
words,

Lawyers are trained to communicate and to
convince


In a lawy office people of different cultures get
born-
born- married – have a car accident – divorce –
make a company – dissolve that company – have
a second marriage – make contracts and break
them – make testaments – inherit and decease

What takes a lifetime for other people to live,
happens every day in a law office

Lawyers have privileged positions for this respect
that hardly any other profession will offer

This knowledge and experience are excellent
source and basis for mediators


Are these statements

CORRECT ?


Then:
Lawyers are experienced
“problem solvers”

Lawyers must be
excellent mediators !


GOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOO
OOOOOOL
OOOOOOL !


BUT ...

Lawyers are trained to analyze disputes

Lawyers are trained to translate “warm” factual /
emotional issues to “cold” legal boxes and frames

Lawyers are trained to isolate “objective” items
and apply them to rules that were designed to
settle “types of issues” and NOT to solve this
particular problem


Lawyers are trained to translate the factual
/emotional / situational position of the client –
through cold legal reasoning – to a suitable and
strong legal position

Lawyers are trained defend that legal position

Lawyers are not trained to listen to the “back
ground music” behind the cold legal facts

Lawyers are even trained to neglect that (they
know the Courts are not really interested in that
information)

Lawyers know that you have to ask MUCH in
order to get something ACCEPTABLE – that you
have to focus on your own strength and exploit
the other sides’ weakness

Lawyers know that the other party also has the
same tactic / position

Lawyers live in a “confrontational environment”
where the strongest survives


Law and justice are designed to decide “neutrally
and blind” on issues and to make people accept
such decisons – to END disputes NOT to SOLVE
them

Most people are totally unaware of the legal
rules, but only have a primary notion of good and
bad

Since people do not know the law, they basically
do not care about it – people have a history and
emotions that lead to a certain act or omission
for which the law does not pay attantion


In a court, people win and loose a case on the
basis of legal texts that they probably do not
understand and that certainly was not in their
mind when the facts occured or the decisions
made

An outside judge – barely knowing and
understanding the “real story” - makes an
outside decision based upon “objective rules” that
is supposed to extinguish a dispute



Though they have an excellent basis, lawyers are
trained to be part of this cold, objective and
confrontational system

The mediation however requires a complete
different approach !


Lawyers can be
In the trainings you will learn
• To listen to the people
• To help them reframe their way of looking at situations
• To help those people listen to the other party too
• To help people unwind their problems themselves
• To help people leave their “positions” – often influenced
by the “home front” and translated to overinflated
money claims
• To help people to look for solutions themselves
• To help people make agreements that solve disputes
and not only end them
• Not to “dig into positions”, but keep away from them
• To be impartial in that process


Lawyers can be

The combination of these skills together with their
vast academical and legal background AND the
unique position of the legal profession in society
makes that well trained lawyers – amongst other
candidates - are potential excellent mediators

But there is a lot to learn ...


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