Negotiation- Lawyers – The ten Golden rules of negotiation for lawyers

The ten golden rules of negotiation for lawyers in Spain

Think for a moment you are preparing a case and your phone rings, it’s Julio the opposing counsel in that case, to see if you are interested in the offer gibed last week. The commune Spanish lawyer error will be to refuse and prefer a large court process or probably precipitation style you accept without revise the case.

Just wake for a moment and think who has the power? Julio because he knows the client’s limit and because you have agreed before be prepared.

In Spain is very cheap to go to court and there are near 300.000 lawyers all prepare for a large period defence strategy and not for a quick negotiation agreement.

Most of Spanish lawyers negotiate instinctively or intuitively but not improve their strategies and techniques of influence and effective negotiation skills and even worst is that they do not realise it.

To avoid this type of mistake I recommend follow this ten rules:

1. Be a decisor maker became a person who takes decisions, choose even in bad moment take an option by you and do not hesitate if you are positive. Be owner of your silence and prisoner of your words.
2. Management the information getting and using it. Negotiation power goes to those who listen and learn. It’s critical to ask questions and get relevant information to use in the negotiation process. With information in your pocket, you have power. Without it, you’ll be losing. Effective lawyer-negotiators starts by getting information building relationship and asking questions –where-what-when- why and how – finding the opponents needs (goals, interest and options).
3. Negotiate with "Fair" and Objective Criteria, are key factors in many legal negotiations because most of the clients in any transition involve future parties and objective view or using topic standards will help to be rational and objective like using the precedents or market values provide an independent and objective view of the issues. Depersonalize the negotiation and help preserving their relationships. "Is because they are in line with the market and they are the equivalent of what it paid…$
4. Do Not Assume. Find out your client and counterpart needs, what are booths prices? What are the alternatives?  Where and when are the limits? But never assume without checking with diligence the real needs and goals of booths parties.
5. Do not expect anything Deal now and hear forgetting the future compensations just one in time. Just find the counters shows the money, no words or papers the real money is a deal now a paper is a new business. Some time if is no money you have to play and became flexible but being realistic and sceptic.
6. Find the key factor of your counters material and immaterial ones and how a negotiation lawyer could find your counterparts negotiations needs, goals, interests or alternative being more objective and able to find options of agreement 
7. Present the agreement like a way of solution for both sides problem your clients and his counters needs and do it in a positive way do not destroy. Prepare your offers so well that your counterpart will feel like they received a decent result
8. Control  the agenda and timing  can provide an independent and objective view of the issues
9. What now? What follows? Offer always do not close the agreement before firm and leave always a dignity way out. Because many transactions involve parties with future relationships.

10. Close the deal in a contract or paper with at least one testators

Alberto Diez