The goal of simulating the environment of a mediation involving the parties in an open negotiation atmosphere was duly achieved on Mediation Day, a virtual meeting held on November 23rd by the Mediation Chamber of ABPI’s Dispute Resolution Center (CSD-ABPI). For more than three hours, the 20 participants pored over a case involving a copyright dispute between the heirs of a musician-composer and a record company. “It is about the dramatization of a hypothetical case, but it puts people in different positions and makes them feel how mediation operates. That’s why it worked very well”, evaluated Manoel J. Pereira dos Santos, president of CSD-ABPI.
The simulated negotiation process aims to train the participants — lawyers, law students, and other professionals involved in negotiation — with negotiation techniques, communication, the search for an agreement, and convergence, to finally reach a consensus, which is the purpose of negotiation. “It is in practice that professionals and parties meet and understand the richness of this type of contribution from a third party with a different look at the disputes that arise between them”, explained lawyer Nathalia Mazzonetto, coordinator of Mediation Day, alongside Manoel J. Pereira dos Santos, Cláudia Grosman and Rodrigo Azevedo, from the CSD Mediation Chamber. “The exercise was based on a real court case and, by preparing in advance, the participants were able to expand their reflections with their peers and the mentor, one of the invited experts”, analyzed Cláudia Grosman.
In the dynamics adopted at the event, the participants were divided into two groups, one representing the heirs and the other the record company. Two mediators also participated as negotiation facilitators, the parties, and their lawyers. The mediation exercise had four stages. In the first one, each group met separately to establish their strategies. On the second, they started the negotiation process. In the third, they met separately with the mediators. In the last stage, the groups got together for the final negotiation. “It was a good exercise because everyone took on their role well”, said Pereira dos Santos. “The idea is for one to experience the role of the mediator, the parties and the lawyer and understand how mediation works”.
Mediation Day also had the support of experts Cláudio Lins de Vasconcelos, Domingos Refinetti and Marcello do Nascimento. At the end, Isabel Cantidiano and Manoel J. Pereira dos Santos made comments as observers.
