Closing and Memorializing the Parties' Agreement

• Author: Victoria Pynchon/Joe Kraynak (With)
• Profession: Mediator, author, speaker, negotiation trainer, consultant, and attorney with 25 years of experience in commercial litigation practice/Professional writer who has contributed to numerous For Dummies books
• Pages: 245-253

Chapter 14

Closing and Memorializing

the Parties’ Agreement

In This Chapter

▶ Avoiding last-minute mistakes that can destroy a deal

▶ Making sure to get the agreement in writing

▶ Ensuring that agreements are durable and enforceable

W

hen the parties achieve consensus, you should be ready to wrap up

the negotiation and get them to sign off on their agreement. In this

chapter, I help you fine-tune your endgame. You find out how to discourage

the parties from engaging in deal-breaking activities such as nibbling, how to

guide them in documenting their agreement to protect their interests, and

how to establish an enforceable agreement without compromising the media-

tion’s confidentiality.

Overcoming Last-Minute Missteps

How you end a negotiation can make or break a deal, even if everyone in the

room believes the deal is done. So as you near the finish line, be careful of

common mistakes that can weaken or undermine a deal. The biggest mistake

you can make as a mediator is to try to split the baby as a last-ditch effort

to salvage a deal. The biggest mistake a party can make is to nibble — to ask

for something in addition to what’s already been agreed to. The following

sections describe these mistakes in greater detail and offer advice on how to

avoid and overcome them.