Category: home-news

Arbiter Tamara Pow Wins Women of Influence 2017 Award

By Sonya Sigler 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 Sonya Sigler 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 Sonya Sigler 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 Sonya Sigler Comments Off on Why Won’t Law Firms Innovate?

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

Proportionality in Dispute Resolution: Breathing Through Your Legal Downward Dog

By Robert Christopher Comments Off on Proportionality in Dispute Resolution: Breathing Through Your Legal Downward Dog

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

Client Centric Lawyers

By Sonya Sigler Comments Off on Client Centric Lawyers

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

Strengthen Client Relationships with Just Resolve

By Peter Reisenauer Comments Off on Strengthen Client Relationships with Just Resolve

One question we often get at Just Resolve is about the role of attorneys in the Just Resolve process. In short, Just Resolve delivers an alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) service that does not require lawyer participation. However, Just Resolve is useful for client centric lawyers (those who care more about their client’s best interests than short term legal fees) even if their services are not required. This article will explain several ways Just Resolve’s method can be used to furtherRead More

Who Decides?

By Sonya Sigler Comments Off on Who Decides?

The ultimate decision maker can be one of the most important factors in resolving your dispute. Is your dispute being decided by a judge or a jury? Or an arbitrator or panel of arbitrators? Or is a mediator helping you come to an agreement? Or a proactive arbiter? Let’s take a look at the roles of each in more detail. Judges Judges are either appointed (at the Federal level) or elected (at the State level, with an outright election orRead More

“You Can’t Sue Me, We’ve Agreed to Resolve It!”

By Peter Reisenauer Comments Off on “You Can’t Sue Me, We’ve Agreed to Resolve It!”

A common question we at Just Resolve have been asked is what a party can do if there is a written mutual agreement to use our “resolve” method, but then one party reneges by going to court instead. Due to Just Resolve’s similarities to other forms of dispute resolution such as mediation and Dispute Review Boards (DRBs), a party should be able to compel the other party to abide by the agreement and submit to Just Resolve’s process. Just ResolveRead More