The Art of Impasse-Breaking in Mediation

David Hoffman's The Art of Impasse-Breaking in Mediation provides hands-on guidance for lawyers and mediators seeking to overcome roadblocks to settlement – a comprehensive manual that describes more than 50 tools that mediators use and why they work. As Harvard Lecturer on Law and past chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, Hoffman draws on more than thirty years of mediating family, business, employment cases and twenty years of teaching mediation in this invaluable guide.

Beginning with tools for preventing impasse, this manual offers guidance on both the do's and the don'ts of closing deals in mediation, with insights drawn from social psychology, game theory, and the Internal Family Systems model. Lawyers, mediators, and other dispute resolvers will find particular value in the numerous vignettes and case studies drawn from Hoffman's experience as a mediator, as well as checklists, forms, and practice tips. The book concludes with suggestions for bringing mediation cases not just to closure but to transformative resolutions that are fair, efficient, stable, and wise.