Blog

Arbiter Tamara Pow Wins Women of Influence 2017 Award

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

Tamara Pow received a Women of Influence 2017 award from the Silicon Valley Business Journal last week and Rob and Sonya were fortunate enough to join this accomplished legal practitioner and Just Resolve Arbiter in this celebration. Ms. Pow has a unique mix of business, tax, and real estate legal experience. She is a licensed attorney and real estate broker with an MBA. The legal practice she founded, Strategy Law, LLP, focuses on helping businesses negotiate deals and navigate theRead More

Forcing Law Firms to Innovate: First, Get Your (In)House in Order

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

Even though it may feel like a steep uphill climb for in-house counsel to force law firms to innovate, there are things that in-house counsel can do to encourage change. In the prior article in this series, I asked “Why won’t in-house counsel force their law firms to innovate?” and the most common answer was that “there is very little we can do to “force” anything…other than rates and reporting. We can’t tell them how to run their business…” Wait, butRead More

What Mt. Kilimanjaro Taught Me About Business

By Robert Christopher Leave a comment

Picture this: ten friends slogging their way up Mt. Kilimanjaro – each one carefully copying the foot placements of the person in front of him. Now add in extreme weather, sleep deprivation and the lurking possibility of injury. About a month ago, that was my reality. The air was thin, but the penchant for adventure was dense as ever. As my friends and I struggled to make our way up, I couldn’t help but think of all the similarities between this trek andRead More

Why Won’t In-House Counsel Force Their Law Firms to Innovate?

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

As a follow-up to my recent article “Why Won’t Law Firms Innovate?,” where the answer was in part that their in-house counsel won’t force them to, I’ve had the chance to speak with several other in-house counsel and I asked them bluntly,  “Why won’t you force your outside law firms to innovate?” The responses were varied, and even though the most frequent answers were centered around fear, uncertainty, and doubt, the real answer lies in one response – “we haveRead More

Why Won’t Law Firms Innovate?

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

Most law firms still use an “opportunity cost” model to charge by the hour, regardless of outcome and how much is at stake. The reason law firms don’t change the way they are doing business is this simple – law firms won’t change because clients don’t make them. Law firms are waiting for clients to insist on change before they make a move. This is a dangerous waiting game. It’s the chicken and egg problem. Clients suspect that their timeRead More

Arbiter Lance Descourouez Wins Vistage Cope Award

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

Media Contact Jackie Flaten, for Just Resolve 650-468-6252  |  jdflaten@gmail.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Just Resolve’s Business Arbiter awarded Top Honor in Global Leadership Organization Silicon Valley’s Lance Descourouez, international business consultant, mentor and community leader provides expert guidance as arbiter for Just Resolve, a firm changing how business justice is delivered October 6, 2016 – SAN JOSE, CA – Just Resolve, a business which provides a revolutionary way to fairly and economically resolves common legal disputes, announced today that oneRead More

Proportionality in Dispute Resolution: Breathing Through Your Legal Downward Dog

By Robert Christopher Leave a comment

Some of us were not meant to be yogis. Downward Dog is more accurately Face-plant Dog for some people. Balance, right? Who knew it could be so difficult? Lately though, there’s been a great deal of chatter about finding balance. In fact, achieving balance appears to have surpassed many previously elevated goals such as making as much money as possible, maintaining triathlete level fitness standards, or even raising a first-chair-violin-and-home-run-hitting valedictorian. The renaissance of balance, of proportionality, means that weRead More

What’s in it for Them?

By Robert Christopher Leave a comment

SO YOU GET IT. You know what’s in it for you. You want neutral-driven dispute resolution in your business contracts. But to make this happen, the other side also has to agree. Since it’s less well known, and not yet standard in industry contract templates, you’ll probably need to propose Just Resolve for any disputes that arise, or at least for disputes up to some comfortable level of money stakes. When you do, and if your counterpart has not heardRead More

What’s in it for Me?

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

If I’m a business owner or in-house lawyer, why would I use an alternative dispute resolution service like just Resolve? How will it benefit me and/or my company? Well, like any new product or service, Just Resolve has to be better, faster, or cheaper, than the alternatives (litigation, arbitration, mediation, or doing nothing). Here’s what’s in it for you! SAVE MONEY: Just Resolve is cheaper than the alternatives. Unlike competitors, Just Resolve’s non-adversarial dispute resolution service has a fixed (orRead More

Client Centric Lawyers

By Rob Christopher Leave a comment

What does it mean to be a client centric lawyer? Lawyers get a bad rap sometimes and are seen as money grubbing slime-balls who bleed their clients for every dime they have. Now, that may be true in the movies but it hasn’t been true in my experience as an attorney. Most lawyers I know and have come across have been very client centric and are concerned about what is best for their client. (Whether the client listens to theirRead More