Overview

Contract disputes are costly, interfere with business productivity, result in economic waste, and destroy business relationships. If you are ready to take action to prevent disputes before they occur, this valuable guide provides proven prevention mechanisms to effectively avoid and prevent business disputes. Written by leading authorities, the book introduces the why and what of dispute prevention and includes a case study of an organization that is shifting from reactive dispute resolution to applying proactive dispute prevention practices. This guide will help you better understand the detailed workings of prevention-focused mechanisms, which include formalizing and managing the business relationship. An overview of the mechanisms is discussed, why they are effective in preventing disputes, and how organizations are putting them into practice. Additionally, the authors include suggestions for designing a Dispute Management System, as well as a compelling business case for why you should make the shift to dispute prevention. If you counsel or play a role in procuring, negotiating, contracting, and/or managing business-to-business relationships, including commercial and supply chain businesses, this guide is an essential resource to take proactive actions to prevent disputes before they occur.

Full Product Details

9781639055555

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise from Business Representatives The dispute prevention mechanisms detailed in this book are not just nice theories. I’ve seen, literally, billions of dollars of construction being completed without any litigation, and with all disputes being resolved during the projects. Howard Carsman Construction Claims Manager (retired) Intel Corp Preventing the Dispute Before It Begins contains essential tools to keep business relationships on track and free from value-killing disputes. The book details a practical continuum all businesses can follow. Dispute prevention commences in the pre-contract relationship development phase, before misalignment and unresolved problems spiral into destructive and counterproductive activity. Whether you are involved in contracting or managing business-to-business relationships, this book is an invaluable resource for companies to avoid and manage the waste associated with disputes. Bill Dodero Senior Vice President & General Counsel Bayer USA ISS is one of the world’s largest facility services companies with several thousand customers. It has been a privilege to help lead ISS’s efforts in piloting and adopting many of the dispute prevention mechanisms shared in Preventing the Dispute Before It Begins... If you are a skeptic—consider picking one or two of the concepts from this book and try piloting them. I trust you will begin to see the benefits like ISS has. Jens Holmberg Legal Director and General Counsel ISS Sweden I lead a team of global lawyers at one of the world’s largest energy companies... We will all benefit from using its guidance in focusing our energies on growing our business relationships rather than wasting those energies on unnecessary conflict. Laura Robertson Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel Conoco-Phillips Chairperson of the Board of Directors, CPR Praise from the Academic Community Preventing the Dispute Before It Begins is immensely valuable not only for contract professionals—but for all who reflect seriously on problem prevention and resolution... This book masterfully offers a variety of practical dispute management measures through case studies, brilliant visualizations, and its sophisticated understanding of contracting and business relationships. Thomas D. Barton Emeritus Professor California Western School of Law, San Diego This book brings to the fore a lesson all lawyers who seek to create value for their clients... Lawyers who fail to internalize this lesson are likely to be put out of business by AI or by more skilled lawyers who are able to draw on their unique skill set to contribute to the pre-contract phase of business relationships. Lisa Bernstein Wilson-Dickenson Professor of Law University of Chicago Law School An excellent read! The authors continue their groundbreaking work in conflict prevention, expanding the dispute management continuum and providing a tested, thoughtful approach for significantly reducing conflict in complex contracting relationships. Rachel Goedken Director, Werner Institute for Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Creighton University School of Law Praise from Industry Associations Imagine, if you will, the power of getting your supplier relationships right before the contract is signed... Getting it right before the contract is signed involves more than just seeking an agreement. It’s about ensuring one knows how to navigate a successful working relationship to accomplish mutually beneficial goals. Mark Baxa President and CEO Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals This practical, thought-provoking book matters: it is tackling the fundamental topic of how we build and sustain positive and productive relationships with our trading partners. Tim Cummins President, World Commerce & Contracting Professor, University of Leeds School of Law Praise from Practicing Lawyers This is a transformative book for legal professionals seeking more proactive dispute prevention practices. If you’re looking for a better way to manage business problems before they become disputes, this is the perfect book for you. Lucy Bassli Founder and Principal, InnoLaw Group, PLLC Former Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Disputes and friction in commercial relationships are value eroding, time consuming and unnecessary... I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in how to do better business in a market environment too often plagued by friction. David Frydlinger Partner Cirio Advokatbyrå AB Praise from the Consulting and Professional Neutral Community Preventing the Dispute Before It Begins is a highly practical and engaging book... This book is a huge contribution. James Bamford Co-Founder, Water Street Partners Former Co-Lead, Joint Venture & Alliance Practice, McKinsey & Co. Mediators and arbitrators frequently concentrate on resolving disputes. This book offers outstanding examples of how to move the dispute resolution process further “upstream”... I highly recommend it! DeAndra Roaché, FCIArb. Arbitrator, Mediator, Adjunct Professor Cynergis Dispute Resolution Service

Author Information

Kate Vitasek is an international authority for her award-winning research and Vested® business model for highly-collaborative relationships. Vitasek is a Distinguished Fellow for the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute where she leads UT’s Certified Deal Architect program – a progressive program teaching the art, science and practice of how to create – and sustain – highly collaborative win-win business relationships. Kate’s research has led to eight books. Vitasek is widely published with over 400 articles in publications including Harvard Business Review, Chief Executive Magazine, The Economist, FAST Company, Information Week, CIO Magazine, World Financial Review and Supply Chain Management Review and the University of Pacific Law Review. Her latest book – Preventing the Dispute Before it Happens – is published by the American Bar Association and was written in collaboration with Jim Groton, Ellen Waldman and Allen Waxman. Vitasek has been lauded by World Trade Magazine as one of the “Fabulous 50+1” most influential people impacting global commerce and she has been featured on CNN International, Bloomberg, NPR, Fox Business News, and Forbes for her practical and research-based advice for creating and sustaining strategic business relationships. Kate Vitasek is in both the Sourcing Industry Group and the International Association of Outsourcing Professional’s “Hall of Fame,” is a World Commerce and Contracting “Fellow,” and has been named a “Power Influencer” by World Financial Review.  In 2023 Vitasek was honored as the 2023 recipient of CPR’s Outstanding Leadership in Dispute Prevention award. Prior to joining the University of Tennessee, Vitasek held positions with P&G, Microsoft, Accenture, Stream International and Supply Chain Visions – a boutique-consulting firm she founded which was recognized by ARC Advisory Group as one of the “10 Coolest” boutique consulting firms. Jim Groton is a retired Partner of the firm of Sutherland. Asbill and Brennan - now known as Eversheds Sutherland - where he led the Construction and Dispute Prevention and Resolution practices of that firm.   As a practicing lawyer during the Atlanta building boom in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he specialized in construction matters, progressing from trial lawyer to trouble-shooter, to behind-the-scenes counselor, to problem-solver, and advocate for “keeping the peace” on construction projects. He was an early student of the construction industry’s newly-invented dispute prevention processes such as realistic risk allocation, partnering, incentives to encourage cooperation, dispute review boards and standing neutrals. He sponsored research into the relative transaction costs of various methods of processing disputes in order to provide empirical data for making decisions about the most appropriate methods for dealing with potential disputes.   Jim was the principal editor and one of the authors of the 1991 book published by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), “Preventing and Resolving Construction Disputes,” which presented the construction industry’s newly-invented techniques for preventing, controlling, de-escalating and achieving the earliest possible resolution of disputes, and advocated applying those mechanisms as a dispute prevention system. He chaired CPR’s Prevention Study Group which authored CPR’s 2010 “Prevention Practice Materials.” In 2016 he persuaded the leaders of the Global Pound Conference to include the still-developing subject of dispute prevention as a part of the Conference’s examination of ways to improve ADR. In a surprising development, the delegates to that Conference voted that “pre-dispute or pre-escalation processes to prevent disputes” are the processes which should most be prioritized to improve the future of dispute resolution. In retirement, Jim has continued to conduct research and advocate the widespread use of dispute prevention practices in business.    Jim has received numerous awards and recognitions for his dispute prevention and resolution work from such organizations as the American Arbitration Association, the Construction Industry Institute, the American Institute of Architects, Engineering News-Record, and CPR. He was the first lawyer to be elected to the National Academy of Construction. Jim is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School.   Ellen Waldman is currently the Vice President of Advocacy and Educational Outreach at the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). In the area of dispute resolution, she writes, trains and consults in a broad range of cases, including end-of-life in the health –care context. Former chair of the International Mediation Institute’s ethics committee, and task-force member for the California judicial council’s working-group on training requirements for court-connected mediators, Waldman has been deeply involved in policy questions relating to the qualification and ethics training of mediators. She has published more than 25 articles on numerous dispute resolution topics and crafted the first book-length treatment of ethical dilemmas in mediation, entitled Mediation Ethics: Cases and Commentaries. Allen Waxman, of counsel at DLA Piper, is the former general counsel and head of litigation at Pfizer as well as the general counsel and a business unit leader at other domestic and international life science companies. Allen was also previously a partner at two national law firms, and his practice has included trying civil and criminal cases, serving as national counsel in pharmaceutical product liability cases, acting as a resolution leader of mass tort and commercial cases, and most recently supporting efforts to deploy artificial intelligence to enhance the practice of law, including in mitigating risk as well as in prevention and resolving disputes. Prior to joining DLA Piper, Allen was the CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). Under his leadership at CPR, the organization launched a pledge for dispute prevention in business relationships and developed tools for more effective, efficient ways to both resolve disputes and prevent them where possible. Allen also developed and moderated a podcast, sponsored by the ABA, called “Avoiding the Dispute Before It Begins,” where he interviewed leaders in the dispute prevention field on implementing dispute prevention mechanisms.

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