Negotiation Skills

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

The pre-teaching period commences four weeks before the subject commencement date. From this time, students are expected to access and review the Reading Guide that will be available from the LMS subject page and the subject materials provided by the subject coordinator, which will be available from Melbourne Law School. Refer to the Reading Guide for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences.

Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Melbourne Law Masters will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.

The Melbourne Law Masters welcomes applications from students with disabilities. The inherent academic requirements for study in the Melbourne Law Masters are:

• The ability to attend a minimum of 75% of classes and actively engage in the analysis and critique of complex materials and debate;
• The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and to critically evaluate these;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
• The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
• The ability to present orally and in writing legal analysis to a professional standard.

Students who feel their disability will inhibit them from meeting these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact the Disability Liaison Unit: www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Irrespective of their speciality, lawyers must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trial. Business lawyers in every domain negotiate on behalf of their clients. Public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, government lawyers, criminal lawyers, tort lawyers, and commercial litigators all share the need to be effective negotiators. Yet few lawyers have any systematic understanding of why negotiations often fail or have suboptimal results, the dilemmas inherent in negotiations, or the characteristics of effective negotiators.

By combining theory and practice, this subject should improve students’ understanding of negotiation and effectiveness as negotiators. This subject should improve their ability to prepare for a negotiation, to engage others in joint problem-solving, and to select appropriate strategies when negotiations don’t go well. Above all, this subject will equip students to continue refining their skills as they gain more experience.

Florrie Darwin teaches the flagship negotiation course at Harvard Law School and has taught negotiation skills to students as well as a broad range of professionals around the world.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to negotiation principles
• Basic elements for preparing and conducting a negotiation
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Creating value in negotiations
• The challenge of distribution
• Effective listening and assertion
• Challenges of email negotiation
• Dealing with difficult negotiation tactics
• Dealing with structural complexity in negotiation/multiparty negotiations.

A student who has successfully completed this subject will:

• Have an advanced and integrated understanding of the complexity of negotiation and the principles relevant to effective negotiation
• Be able to critically examine, analyse and interpret the behaviour of parties to a negotiation
• Have significantly enhanced your negotiation skills and developed a wider and more sophisticated repertoire of negotiation strategies
• Have an advanced capacity to deal efficiently with differences and conflicts that arise in the context of negotiation
• Have significantly improved your capacity to develop and maintain working relationships with others, including capacity in relation to interpersonal, communication and feedback skills
• Have an advanced and sophisticated understanding of ways in which to make better deals and agreements
• Have an advanced and sophisticated capacity to learn effectively from your own negotiation experience
• Be able demonstrate autonomy, expert judgment and responsibility as a practitioner and learner in relation to negotiation.

• Class participation (40%)
• Written assignments, including an analytical journal (25%) (20 July)
• 3,000 word research paper (35%) (20 July) on a topic approved by the subject coordinator

A minimum of 75% attendance is a hurdle requirement.

Core subject materials will be provided free of charge to all students. Some subjects require further texts to be purchased. Details regarding any prescribed texts will be provided prior to the commencement of the subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

This subject has a quota of 30 students. Please refer to the website www.law.unimelb.edu.au/masters/courses-and-subjects/subjects/subject-timing-and-format for further information about the management of subject quotas and waitlists.