Negotiation Skills for Lawyers

Synopsis

Our negotiation skills for lawyers practical course is an ideal introduction to planning and handling successful negotiations.

This course focuses on effective strategies and tactics, both how to use them and how to react to them. If you have never negotiated in a professional capacity, or are a lawyer the wants to improve your negotiating skills, this course will be ideal.

Outcomes

The art of good negotiation is one of the more difficult skills for a lawyer to master, as each interaction involves listening and understanding, presenting arguments, assertiveness and co-operation.

As a result of attending the course, you will:

plan negotiations more effectively
choose negotiation strategies and techniques that work
identify and use negotiation levers to get the best results
respond successfully to the techniques used by others

Skills in negotiation are important in the majority of work types which lawyers operate in. As your client's legal representative you have a duty to explore all potential avenues that are available for resolving a dispute, as litigation should always be the last option once dialogue and negotiations have failed.

In our course we cover:

What is a negotiation?
Defining the term and understanding your aims

What do skilled negotiators do?
Identifying the behaviours that work, and those that don't

Competitive or co-operative negotiation?
Characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

Breaking deadlocks
Techniques for making progress

Identifying personal styles
How to develop a range of approaches and controlling your emotions

Preparation
Why you should identify gaps in your knowledge
How to set objectives, identify the important issues, and select the right strategy

The negotiating process
When and how to open a negotiation
Making proposals, making concessions, and using deadlines
Deciding when to stop negotiating

Format

A practical course based on two or three negotiations which can be tailored to suit you. Examples include:

1. The 'Red and Blue' Game
Based on the 'Prisoners' Dilemma', this task is a negotiation between two teams trying to achieve the same result. Team members have to negotiate with each other in order to develop a strategy, and then communicate effectively with the other team. They learn about competitive and co-operative negotiation, personal styles, and building and undermining trust through decision making.

2. Sale/purchase exercise
Multiple teams prepare and conduct negotiations to sell or buy a commodity. Team members learn about asking questions to collect information, listening actively, and using effective opening positions. They also learn to handle several issues simultaneously.

3. Handling a complaint
Multiple teams prepare and conduct negotiations in relation to a complaint. Team members learn about persuasive and non-persuasive behaviours, problem solving, and fighting over differences. This negotiation also introduces client-handling.

The tutor's input is entirely in the form of feedback on the delegates' work during and after the negotiation exercises.

This course requires two adjacent rooms.

Duration

4 hours

Delegates

Lawyers and legal support staff at all levels.

Maximum 8 per course

Tutors

Peter Kinch
Doug Robinson
Roxanne Frantzis
Tanya Gass

Format Options

We also offer a negotiation skills e-learning course as well as negotiation skills as a PSC Elective.

Negotiation Courses for Lawyers

Synopsis

Outcomes

Training Onsite or Live Online

Course Content

Client Testimonial - Negotiation Training

Client testimonials