The following question was posed to faculty member and executive committee member Guhan Subramanian as part of our “Ask the Negotiation Coach” series of articles.
Question: My company is in the middle of a contract dispute with a customer. The dollar values are large, but thus far things have stayed professional. Our contract specifies binding arbitration in the event of a dispute, but the customer has proposed mediation as a way to avoid the risk of an arbitrated outcome and also to preserve what will hopefully be an ongoing relationship. Though we are amenable to mediation, we are concerned that the particular mediator their team has proposed does not have expertise in the technical issues at stake. We have a different person in mind who, in our view, has greater technical expertise and would do a better job of bridging the gap between the parties. Should we recommend for preferred mediator as a counteroffer?
