Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/139946
TI M TE E B KE N /G ETTY I MAG ES Lucy agreed to the terms of the "offer." The Zehmers refused to sell the property, indicating that their "offer" was a joke. Lucy brought an action for specific performance. (Lucy v. Zehmer (1954) 196 Va. 493). This is a perfect dispute for students to mediate. Professors can break their students into groups of three—Lucy, Zehmer, and a mediator—and give them ten minutes to try to find a solution everyone can live with. At the end of those ten minutes, each group should elect a spokesperson to present its solution. We have found that it can be very illuminating for students to compare how the actual disposition of the case differs from the solutions that they propose. 3. Integrate mediation into the entire business law course. As the semester marches on and legal cases come up in other contexts, professors first can go over who won, who lost, and what rule of law emerged. They can then set aside 15 minutes for students to participate in a role-playing exercise built around the same case. This exercise allows students to see if mediation can produce different—and maybe better—results than those that were actually achieved in court. For an even faster exercise, the instructor can simply open the floor to a quick discussion of how the case might have had a different outcome if the parties had used mediation instead of litigation. Professors who repeat this exercise every few weeks in different areas of Helpful Links business law will quickly and easily www.mediationtrainings.org integrate mediation throughout the www.niacr.org business law curriculum. sions, which the California courts offer for free on their website. Either method allows students to observe the mediator's technique and approach, the atmosphere in www.inadr.org the room, and the give and take www.eeoc.gov/employees/mediation.cfm between the parties. Viewing a Getting Comfortable mediation doesn't take up an inorTeaching mediation properly does www.ada.gov/mediate.htm dinate amount of time, but it gives require an investment of time, but www.mediate.com students invaluable insights into the we believe the topic is so important www.adrforum.com process. We recommend that the that it should be covered in our www.courts.ca.gov/programs-adr.htm video viewing or the trip to court business classrooms. The more comtake place early in the semester, so fortable our students are with the students can apply what they've learned to later lessons. process of mediation, the more likely they will be to use it 2. Give students a chance to participate in mediato resolve a future dispute efficiently and peacefully. And tion role-play. While business law classes typically that's an approach we believe harmonizes with the realidraw on appellate case opinions to teach students the ties of the business world we are preparing our students rule of law, professors can use the fact patterns from to enter. these cases as mediation prompts. For example, here's a leading business law contract case: Richard E. Custin and Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff are attorneys who teach business law at the University of San Diego School Zehmer discussed selling a farm to Lucy. Zehmer and of Business Administration in California. his wife signed a paper agreeing to sell the farm to Lucy. BizEd July/August 2013 59