Betting the Company

Complex Negotiation Strategies for Law and Business

Andrew Trask and Andrew DeGuire

Offers an introduction to the theoretical concepts lawyers and business leaders must master with the practical tools to successfully conduct a multi-faceted negotiation
Explains the different strategic considerations negotiators will face
Discusses the specific challenges raised by negotiations that involve multiple parties and issues, or that take place over longer periods of time
Provides concrete advice on how to guide companies through the negotiation process

Betting the Company

Complex Negotiation Strategies for Law and Business

Andrew Trask and Andrew DeGuire

Description

Where the fate of a company is on the line in a negotiation, legal and business teams must work seamlessly to reach a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, there's often a gap between lawyers, who are typically untrained in business strategy, and business executives, who lack basic knowledge of contract law and regulations.

In Betting the Company: Complex Negotiation Strategies for Law and Business, Andrew Trask and Andrew DeGuire offer a thorough introduction to enable lawyers and business people to understand the theoretical concepts and to apply practical tools to conduct a successful, multi-faceted negotiation. The authors, both of whom have extensive experience conducting high-stakes negotiation, explain the different strategic considerations negotiators face, from the pressures on individuals representing a larger group to the difficulties that arise from clashes of corporate culture. They also discuss the specific challenges raised by negotiations that involve multiple parties, multiple issues, and take place over longer periods of time. Throughout this illuminating book, Trask and DeGuire provide concrete, practical advice on how best to guide companies through the most difficult negotiations.

Betting the Company

Complex Negotiation Strategies for Law and Business

Andrew Trask and Andrew DeGuire

Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1: ELEMENTS OF COMPLEX NEGOTIATION
1.1 When good deals go bad
1.2 The nature of negotiation
1.3 The problem of complex negotiations
CHAPTER 2: NON-RATIONAL JUDGMENTS
2.1 Heuristics - When our mental shortcuts get us into trouble
2.2 Professional biases - How training colors our world
2.3 Personality and emotion - Nobody's Spock
CHAPTER 3: MULTI-PARTY NEGOTIATIONS
3.1 Multi-lateral negotiations - More people, more problems
3.2 Team negotiations - None of us is as dumb as all of us. I love my team/I hate my team
3.3 Negotiations with organizational constituents - Behind the table
3.4 Practical suggestions
CHAPTER 4 - MULTIPLE DECISIONS
4.1 Multiple options
4.2 Multiple issues
4.3 Agendas - The Secret Weapon
4.4 Practical applications
CHAPTER 5 - TRANSACTIONS OVER TIME
5.1 Path dependence - Starting points matter
5.2 Time asymmetries - Why someone prefers to go slow
5.3 Exogenous shocks - What happens when stuff happens
5.4 Learning - Why some conflict may not be so bad
5.5 Sequential strategy - Why it pays to be nice
5.6 Practical implications
CHAPTER 6 - REGULATED NEGOTIATIONS
6.1 Information and disclosure - basic concepts
6.2 Obligations/duties to constituents (corporate law)
6.3 Conduct of negotiations
6.4 What written agreement looks like (contract law/rules of evidence)
6.5 Content of deal (tax/specific regulations)
6.6 Practical implications
CHAPTER 7 - INTER-CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS
7.1 Organizational culture - The Personality of the Organization
7.2 National culture - You can take the boy out of Iowa …
CHAPTER 8 - GRAND STRATEGY
8.1 Primary purpose
8.2 Scorecard
8.3 Internal capacity assessment
8.4 Best alternatives
8.5 Materiality/leverage
CHAPTER 9 - INTELLIGENCE
9.1 What to Look For
9.2 How to Find It.
CHAPTER 10 - TACTICAL MOVES
10.1 Deploying resources
10.2 Process - The importance of project management
10.3 Putting things in motion
10.4 Approaching the Other Side
10.5 In the Room
10.6 Put into action
Index

Betting the Company

Complex Negotiation Strategies for Law and Business

Andrew Trask and Andrew DeGuire

Author Information

Andrew Trask, Counsel, McGuire Woods, LLP, and Andrew DeGuire, Vice President of Strategy & Acquisitions, Building Efficiency, Johnson Controls, Inc.

Andrew Trask is counsel at McGuire Woods, LLP where he specializes in class-action litigation, including consulting on various complex litigation settlements. He frequently writes and speaks on litigation strategy and maintains the Class Action Countermeasures blog. He is co-author, with Brian Anderson, of The Class Action Playbook, Second Edition (Oxford University Press 2012). Andrew DeGuire is Vice President of Business Development and Global Growth for Johnson Controls, Inc. He has been involved in acquisitions and divestitures for more than 17 years. He has been a part of and led teams responsible for over $4 billion in value. He has been engaged in more than 40 deals that have closed successfully, and-just as important-more than 200 that have not.