The Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators invited Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution to present Mediating the Litigated Case in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 23-28, 2010.
The Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators recruited participants from members of its panel as well as leaders in the Malaysian bench and bar. Participants included five judges and the head of the civil division for Malaysia's Attorney General's Office, who is drafting legislation regarding mediation in Malaysia.
Mohanadass Kanagasabai, president of the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators, first heard about the program when 40 judges from Thailand attended the program in Malibu, California, last summer.
The faculty members for the program were Straus Institute Managing Director Peter Robinson and adjunct professors Bruce Edwards (JAMS in San Francisco, California) and James Craven (Evans, Craven & Lackie in Spokane, Washington).
“The opportunity to present our training to leaders of the bench and bar in Malaysia was timely and rewarding,” said Robinson. “It was timely because mediation of commercial disputes is still in the developmental stage, so we had an opportunity to present issues to thought leaders in positions of influence. Before our program, the only approach to mediation that had been presented was exclusively facilitative and focused on integrative bargaining. While this model has proven helpful for neighborhood community centers in the U.S., it is not the norm for the legal community and complex commercial disputes. Our program was the first introduction of a form of mediation that has been embraced by judges and lawyers in the U.S. The experience was rewarding because of the warm reception given by our hosts to us and our program.”