“Getting To Yes”
Roger Fisher & William Ury
ISBN 0-14-015735-2

This groundbreaking work on principled negotiations by faculty of the Harvard Negotiations Project is a classic “must read” for every negotiator, mediator and ADR professional. It is particularly applicable to conflicts involving ongoing relationships. “No other book in the field comes close to its impact on the way practitioners, teachers, researchers, and the public approach negotiations.” National Institute for Dispute Resolution Forum

“Challenging Conflict:
Mediation Through Understanding”
Gary Friedman & Jack Himmelstein
ISBN-13:978-1-60442

This book, authored by principals of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, combines in-depth scenes and dialogue from ten real cases with commentary covering the key concepts of the unique approach to mediation the authors advocate. After Getting to Yes, this is the most influential book I’ve read on mediation.

“Let’s Not Make a Deal:
An Empirical Study of Decision Making in Unsuccessful Settlement Negotiations”
Randall L. Kiser, Martin A. Asher, and Blakeley B. McShane
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Volume 5, Issue 3, 551-591, September 2008

A 2008 University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School study involving 2,054 cases as reported in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies found that when cases were adjudicated, plaintiffs committed decision error, receiving an award less than or equal to the last offer made by the defendant, in 61.2 percent of cases. Defendants committed decision error in 24.3 percent of cases. When combined with two previous studies, these same results were obtained for 9,064 cases.

“Divorce and Family Mediation Models, Techniques and Applications”
Edited by Jay Folberg, Ann L. Milne, and Peter Salem
ISBN 1-59385-002-6

“An authoritative, state-of-the-art, resource. Includes chapters on Never-Married Parents, Mediating with Blended Families, and Mediating Separation of Same-Sex Couples. Easily the most comprehensive text of its kind.” Hugh McIsaac LCSW past Editor, Family & Conciliation Courts Review