Legal Negotiation books - which should I buy?

March 10, 2013 1:54 PM

Hi. I am looking for recommendations as to which o the following titles I should purchase; I am very new to this topic. Additionally, this is an area of legal education that my forthcoming university in England will not cover (it is not included in their LLB and generally in UK universities). Other universities do however, stage internal negotiation simulations workshops and competitions for its law students as an extra-curricular, CV boosting and skills enhancing activity. My law school is unfortunately bereft of adequate funding, connections with city law firms and general career/skills resources to have such a thing.

I have tried looking up existing reviews for them as well viewing them on googlebooks in vain.

Please may I know which of these mefi-ers have used and would recommend?

* Negotiation Theory and Strategy - Aspen Publishers (2002)

* Mediation and Negotiation: Reaching Agreement in Law and Business by Wendy Trachte-Huber

* Lawyer Negotiation: Theory, Practice and Law - Professor Jay Folberg

* Effective Legal Negotiation and Settlement - Charles B. Craver

* The Science of Settlement--Ideas for Negotiators by Barry Goldman


My questions:

* Which did you find useful (worth the purchase) and why?/ Which were recommended and used by your law school? Additionally, did you find any of them more dense than others?

* Which are US-centric, ie will not be of much use to an LLB student in England or elsewhere in the world (even if they will be involved in cross-border work in the future)

* Which will be most useful for an aspiring corporate solicitor?

I will be the equivalent of a 1L. I am currently leaning towards the first two as they will be the cheapest to ship to the UK.

Additionally, does anyone have any recommendations for negotiation cases or casebooks (if such exist)? Although I can't help but think that theory will only be useful to a limited extent, I won't have an avenue to be exposed to real (or even mock) scenarios scenarios as a student of my university.

Thank you very much

posted by ethelwulf to Law & Government (7 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, and other recommendations would be most welcome too.
posted by ethelwulf at 1:58 PM on March 10, 2013

Getting to Yes -- Ury and Fisher.
From the Harvard Negotiation Project. An oldie but goodie.
posted by mmf at 2:03 PM on March 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

The two required texts for my college class on "Negotiation and Conflict Management" were "Getting to Yes" and "The mind and heart of the negotiator." Both are research based. I recommend them all the time.
posted by Michele in California at 2:05 PM on March 10, 2013

i did mediation and negotiation clinics in law school and we made use of the brief and practical text "the only negotiation guide you'll ever need" by Peter B. Stark & Jane Flaherty
posted by zdravo at 2:23 PM on March 10, 2013

Definitely "Getting to Yes." It is well know and used widely. I've taken two negotiation classes (regular and advanced) and we used "Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes." It emphasizes a more collaborative approach.
posted by mewohu at 2:48 PM on March 10, 2013

Effective Legal Negotiation and Settlement is a good one.
posted by Corvid at 2:57 PM on March 10, 2013

I was going to write "getting to yes". But everyone else has already said it.
posted by Happydaz at 12:12 AM on March 11, 2013