Strategic planning requires the lawyer to think strategically regarding furthering the client’s goals and implementingthe client’s objectives.

It requires that the lawyer not only understand the “end game” if other dispute resolution processes fail, but it means the lawyer must understand different dispute resolution methods and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

For example, lawyers must understand not only negotiation strategy, the ins and outs of mediation, and the pitfalls of arbitration, but also bankruptcy law, intellectual property law, antitrust law, and the companion procedural laws regarding removal, joinder, interpleader, multi-district litigation, and class actions. Regardless of the process and substantive law setting in which the lawyer works, the lawyer must always see the process as a means to the client’s objectives, and be willing to consider switching, when possible, from one process and setting to another if another process might work better to serve the client’s goals.

At the heart of each of these frameworks for dispute resolution lays negotiation theory and practice and the complementary field of conflict resolution. They are keys to a lawyer’s understanding the strategies involved of different dispute resolution processes and settings. This chapter will focus on negotiation and conflict resolution theory, as it informs lawyer strategy in every step of the litigation process, but in particular, as it informs how the lawyer should best implement the client’s objectives.