Real Practice Systems Project Menu of Checklists for Attorneys in Mediation

This is a detailed menu of checklists for attorneys representing clients in mediation, including actions before, during, and after mediation sessions. The checklists include items about information to provide on websites, compliance with ethical requirements, and reflection and improvement of techniques. They are intended to prompt attorneys to become more conscious and intentional in their work, helping them to develop routines and strategies for dealing with recurring problems.The checklists are extensive but not exhaustive. They are not recipes to follow strictly, thoughtlessly, or completely. Instead, they should help attorneys decide what to do in any specific case or in their practice generally. Attorneys can use them to develop their own checklists, modifying or omitting some items and adding others. They should tailor these checklists to reflect their values, practice philosophies, and characteristics of their cases and clients. Attorneys can perform almost all of the tasks in the checklists regardless of their views about various mediation models or theories.The checklists are concrete illustrations of Real Practice Systems Theory, illustrating that each attorney inevitably has a unique practice system. Under this theory, attorneys base their systems on their personal histories, values, goals, motivations, knowledge, and skills as well as the parties and the cases in their mediationsThese checklists complement a menu of checklists for mediators. There is substantial overlap between the mediators’ and attorneys’ checklists, with some significant differences.The checklists are designed primarily for attorneys but they may be valuable to teachers and trainers, students and trainees, program administrators, and academics analyzing mediation.