As a US expat, I am on average asked 3 or 4 times a week just what exactly is going on with America, the election and in particular with Donald Trump.  I explain that Americans (particularly middle Americans) are rebelling against the established order and are supporting candidates from the far right like Donald Trump

The Art of Dealing with Difficult Clients and Difficult Lawyers   Founder and CEO of The Mediation Experts, Farley S. Tolpen was delighted to give an invited presentation last night titled “How to Recognise and Deal with Difficult Clients and Difficult Lawyers”. Farley is well known for his inspiring and enthusiastic talks and he was

Farley was once again invited to give a presentation to a medium sized law firm yesterday on dealing with challenging clients and lawyers. Those of you who have met Farley will be familiar with his friendly personality and witty sense of humor which helped ensure everyone stayed involved and intrigued throughout! During this presentation Farley

FROM ANGER AND BITTERNESS TO RELIEF AND SMILES – A SUCCESSFUL MEDIATION! One of the joys of mediation is when parties are able to not only resolve the conflict, but also come to terms with their emotions. I recently conducted a business mediation between two directors who had been with the same company for over

WHY I MEDIATE Someone asked me the other day why am I so passionate about mediation. I thought for a moment and told him that my mission statement as a mediator is to leave to world a better place than I found it. What that means is that as an individual, I can help resolve

Mediation – The Process of Healing By Farley Tolpen, CEO. So what do you do when you have two parties at each other’s throats for over 4 years? This was one of those classic situations you see every day in cheesy 80’s sitcoms. This involved two people who were constantly shouting at each other and

I recently had the opportunity to see and hear the Dalai Lama. He spoke for over 1-1/2 hours and was incredible. Part of his talk was how each of us as individuals possess the seeds of love, compassion, empathy, kindness and forgiveness. These seeds can be developed by practice. Once we have sown said seeds

By Farley Tolpen, CEO.  I mediated a matter between two employees who worked in the same department for a medium sized company. Mutual cooperation was necessary for their positions and the company’s success. Unfortunately, there was a complete lack of communication and a high level of conflict between them with accusations of fraud, harassment and

At first glance, mindfulness and mediation are very different. Mindfulness is referred to as a solitary self-help/self-development practice. Mediation involves a conversation between a minimum of two parties and a mediator. When these two practices are joined, there are very similar parallels that lead to resolution. Both practices require the person/mediator to pay attention to

Sometimes the litigants aren’t the only antagonists. Recently I was asked to mediate in a matter that was already in its 4th year.  There had been 3 prior mediations.  There was a huge amount of anger and there were accusations of fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and thievery.  The litigants had already forked out in excess of