Special Topics in Legal Practice: Negotiation

In 2009 this course will be Special Topics in Legal Practice: Negotiation

Objectives:  

This course explores advanced negotiation concepts and skills beyond the simple principled negotiation techniques taught in most practical legal training. It provides students with a framework for determining which of the many negotiation techniques to apply in any given situation while remaining true to their personal ethics and values.

At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

• Explain the difference between creating and claiming value;
• Analyse their needs in a negotiation situation according to their material, emotional, and character needs and frame and communicate these needs in a compelling way;
• Diagnose the structural elements in the negotiation that affect their power as represented by their abilities to agree, walk away, endure, and persuade;
• Properly prepare for complex negotiations by classifying them as a game, a decision, a joint-problem, or a war;
• Identify and nullify common negotiation tactics;
• Understand the strategies and skills required to consistently obtain superior negotiation outcomes for their clients or themselves;
• benchmark their skills and identify key areas for future development

Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the course concepts by undertaking online role-plays using Machiavelli's Workshop's online negotiation skills software and submitting reflective essays based on their performance.

The role plays are conducted via email and chat rooms over a period of 2-3 weeks. For each role play, students receive their instructions and prepare for the negotiation, negotiate an outcome, and then review the role play and debrief material.  It is anticipated that completion of each role play will be a compulsory course requirement.

Students will be assessed on a mixture of the negotiation preparation, negotiation outcomes and the quality of their self-reflective essay, with marks weighted in favour of the reflective essay.

Students must rely on the Approved Assessment which will be posted to the course homepage on the ANU Law website, prior to the commencement of the course.

The workload is constant, but not taxing. Students should allow an average of five hours each week to read course materials and participate in role plays. Depending on their complexity and level of interaction, each role play involves between half an hour to two hours preparation and 20 minutes participation every two-three days.

Students with an interest in the area will find the following text of value:

• Breakthrough International Negotiations by Michael Watkins & Susan Rosegrant, Jossey-Bass, 2001.