He swore at me in front of my client. I was really surprised. I was a young lawyer at the time, and he was the opposing counsel and managing partner of a prominent law firm. I had requested documents that his associate had promised, and that my client had flown in to...
We just returned from a family trip to Japan, and I couldn’t help but consider some of the culturally different negotiation approaches – and the lessons we can learn from them. Here are three. Of course, these are broad and general tendencies. And exceptions abound,...
Masayoshi Son had “earned a reputation as the Bill Gates of Japan” by making it big with the software distributor SoftBank. According to Sebastian Mallaby in The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, while Son’s “childhood home was a squatter’s...
Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of the Ethernet computer-networking technology and founder of a tech company sold in 2010 to Hewlett-Packard for $2.7 billion, called this negotiation tactic of a potential venture capital investor the “Oh-by-the-Way Syndrome.” Here’s what...
“Does it help or hurt to be unpredictable in a negotiation,” I am often asked these days. Let me give you a great legal answer – it depends! What does it depend upon? 1. A future relationship with your counterpart Do you have, expect and/or want a future relationship...
Here is my annual list of lessons learned and links to the columns that more extensively address these strategies. Don’t forget to implement these in 2026! How you communicate and the tone of your voice – your pitch, inflection, pace, volume, emphasis and general...
My mom recently closed on the sale of her condo, and I just debriefed on the negotiation with our real estate agent. Here is what we learned. We all can benefit from these. 1. Homework paid off with the right real estate agent. I interviewed four real estate agents,...
We’ve all heard that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Originally penned by Scottish poet Robert Burns in his 1785 poem “To a Mouse,” this phrase recognizes that even the most carefully developed plans can end in disaster if and when the unexpected...
Like millions of others, I have been amazed at the resources and power that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brought to everyone in so many fields. And while some legitimately feel threatened by this ongoing revolutionary change (and which I partially address in my...
