Dispute Resolution for All Counselors? a New Way of Looking at Our Business (Feature‪)‬

SOME OF YOU CAN REMEMBER when there was no television. It was a theory yet to be perfected and commercialized. Younger generations cannot visualize a time when television didn't dominate almost every room of our homes and offices. Similarly, students of law in the next couple of decades may be surprised to find that "dispute resolution" clauses--both mediation and arbitration--were not always included in contracts. With dispute resolution emerging as a "new frontier" real estate-related practice, The Counselors of Real Estate[R] is providing assistance and information to counselors who have an interest in establishing mediation as an offering of their professional services. Some have asked if mediation or the other skilled techniques of dispute resolution fit in the practices of counselors. Perhaps there is another twist to this question. Can a practitioner of real estate-related disciplines benefit from using the techniques and skills of dispute resolution and yet never practice formal mediation?