With Christmas and New Year’s Days occurring on the next two Mondays, this will be our last blog post of the year. It has been a full year of challenges, triumphs and changes. We will be doing what we can to keep all our client matters moving toward resolution during the holidays, but we will also be maximizing our time with loved ones and recharging so we can produce our best work in 2024.
In case you missed any of these updates, here our 2023 highlights and what’s ahead in 2024.
January 2023 Wrap-Up
We started the year by completing a long-term Equal Employment Opportunity and Title IX project at Queens College, where we worked with some of the top experts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our commitment to DEI continues to inform all our work, much as the Third Ear Conflict Resolution process does.
February 2023 Book Study
Nance L. Schick‘s book, DIY Conflict Resolution: Seven Choices and Five Actions of the Masters was again chosen for a mastermind group’s book study, and she was asked to lead a question and answer session once the group completed the book. Groups continue to find the Third Ear Conflict Resolution process helpful in defining the conflict, identifying the relevant personal interests, playing with the full range of possible solutions, creating a more peaceful and productive future, and staying on PARR.
March 2023 Negotiation Competition
Volunteering is one way we collaborate with others committed to conflict resolution and cultivate our future leaders. In March, Nance again judged the Negotiation Competition at Cardozo Law School. She also spoke again to Dr. Jan Yager’s Victimology students at John Jay College about her polyvictimization and inclusion in Dr. Yager’s book, Essentials of Victimology. Both are events in which we learn as much as we teach, and we are looking forward to doing these for many more years.
April 2023 Workplace Podcast Appearance
A mediator to the core, Nance appeared with Gina Capella and Nicola Knobel on the Toxic Workplace podcast to share some tips for employers and employees. We still believe when these groups come together in partnership toward the achievement of mutually compatible goals, everyone has a better work experience.
May 2023 AI Podcast Appearances
As artificial intelligence became a concern for lawyers, employers, and employees, Bonnie D. Graham invited Nance and several of her colleagues back on her Technology Revolution: The Future of Now podcast. As predicted, lawyers and employees were disciplined for misusing ChatGPT but even more quickly than imagined. This will continue to be a topic we watch closely. We’re lucky to still have Former Employee and AI Explorer Peter Schmitz on our team of collaborators.
Did you miss Nance’s prior appearances? Find them here.
June 2023 Anniversary
Twenty years went by faster than we ever imagined, which naturally has us looking to our next 20 years of resolving workplace disputes. As of December 31, 2023, we are closing the portion of our firm providing defense of workers compensation claims so we can focus on the pre-litigation services that create more peaceful and productive workplaces. We’ll share more about that in the coming months.
Summer 2023 Heat
The temperature in New York might have been relatively comfortable, but we saw a lot of hot tempers cause workplace disputes. From financial disagreements between co-owners of businesses to the more typical disputes between employers and employees about attendance and performance, we were busy re-humanizing the parties involved and helping them find ways to put the issues behind them.
Fall 2023 Reflection
Litigation might never have been the best way to resolve legal disputes. We have known this for decades, but some matters are required to be decided by judges or juries. Accepting this, we tried to bring our holistic approach to workplace dispute resolution into the courtroom. Until recently, we didn’t realize how radical this might be.
We’ve long known that courts aren’t trauma-informed. Their options for resolving disputes are limited, often leaving parties to feel the judgments or settlements are incomplete. Worse yet, they might get surprise results from judges in bad moods or juries who primarily care about going home. When we hand our power over to others, our risks of unhappiness increase. This is why we help our clients maintain control over the outcome.
December 2023 Change of Address
Many of you have seen these changes coming. The adversarial process of litigation has never been our preferred system. It was important, however, for use to spend the past 20 years working within it so we could understand it and identify the areas needing improvement, if not dismantling. These are challenging times, yet we are optimistic about what we can create together.
One last thing for now: As of December 1, 2023, our new address is 43 West 43rd Street, Suite 314, New York, New York 10036. In-person meetings at this address are by appointment only. Please update your records.