For release: January 24, 2012
For press information, contact Chelsea Dubey, 901-678-4910

Robert Mnookin

Harvard Law Professor Robert Mnookin will speak on “Bargaining with the Devil” at the University of Memphis law school in downtown Memphis on Feb. 8 at 4 p.m.  His talk will be in the Wade Auditorium of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, located at 1 N. Front Street. Guests are invited to a reception immediately following the lecture. Free and open to the public, the lecture is co-sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.

One of the country’s most eminent practitioners of the art and science of negotiation, Mnookin is the author of Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight. In the book he explores the challenge of making critical decisions and bargaining with adversaries you do not trust, who may harm you, or whom you consider evil incarnate.

The head of Harvard’s famed Program on Negotiation, Mnookin provides tools for confronting devils of all kinds – in business, law, politics, and family life. In his speech, he will discuss how to make wise decisions about whether to negotiate or fight.

Drawing on examples from business, from family disputes, and from historical examples – including Winston Churchill’s fateful decision not to negotiate with Hitler and Nelson Mandela’s decision to initiate negotiations with the apartheid government in South Africa – Mnookin develops a method for how to avoid emotional, strategic, and political traps.

A leading expert in the field of conflict resolution, he has mediated many complex commercial disputes that involved advanced technologies and intellectual property. He has written or edited nine books and many scholarly articles. He has also taught workshops for corporations, governmental agencies, and law firms throughout the world and trained executives and professionals in negotiation and mediation skills.

For more information, contact Chelsea Dubey at ctdubey@memphis.edu.