Most real estate agents consider themselves pretty good negotiators. After all, home buyers and sellers have been hiring agents for years to negotiate the purchase price of their homes (often the biggest financial transaction of their lives). Recently, however,...
“When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money,” noted writer H.L. Mencken and others. This applies in many negotiations. But not always. In fact, this has not been true for the third highest compensated college basketball coach in the...
Years ago in law school, I was taught to pay particularly close attention to any inconsistencies I noticed in litigation from our opponents – whether in depositions, motions or at trial. I was told to analyze their words, strategic moves, and tone and body language....
“Pay extra attention to the minutiae and ensure you fully understand every term and condition,” this senior partner told me when I was a junior associate. “Some lawyers will try to bury critical provisions in the least obvious places. It’s your job to catch and...
“I would love to do the deal, but I just don’t have the authority.” I can’t count how many times I have heard this in a negotiation. It’s probably one of the most common statements in all negotiations. It’s also often a smart strategic move, especially if you...
“I just bought us 48 hours,” star lawyer Harvey Specter told his understudy in the USA Network legal drama series Suits. He said this after getting his incarcerated client to hit him, a shocking move that gave them sufficient time to elicit a confession from the...
Founding Father George Washington has his famous cherry tree story about his honesty (which ironically was untrue). But Founding Father Benjamin Franklin has a real story about his very own mulberry tree behind his Philadelphia house – and it relates to his effective...
Without Founding Father Benjamin Franklin’s extraordinary negotiation skills, the United States of America may not even exist. It was Franklin, after all, that successfully negotiated with France for sufficient financial and military resources to fight the British in...
When I practiced law in the mid-1990s, my law firm sent out its new fee rates every January. And our clients basically just said “ok.” Our rates would go up a bit each year, and it was generally viewed as no big deal. With the incredibly competitive marketplace these...
