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As the NFL preseason comes to a close, a number of high-profile players are still holding out, some claiming a willingness to skip the season if they don’t get what they want.

Why would a player hold out?  To strengthen their leverage.  The player wants to emphasize the unattractiveness of the team’s Plan B – going through the season without that player on the field.  If the player is good enough to impact the team’s actual likelihood of success, this can be quite effective. 

USA Today provides us with another great example of the standards dance – where opposing sides make their case as to why their standards are the “most fair.”  In researching compensation differences between government employees and private sector employees, USA Today analysts found that federal civilian workers earned double what their private counterparts earned.

In a recent LeClairRyan webinar about successful mediating, attorney Robyn Gnudi Kalocsay pointed out that failing to get the agreed-upon terms in writing can be a critical mistake at the end of the negotiation process.

As detailed in The New York Times, Honest Tea is a specialty juice and tea company with 2009 revenues of $47 million. Coca-Cola owns 40% of the company with an option to buy the remainder next year.