- Jim Groton

Proactive Pre-dispute Prevention, De-escalation and Real Time Resolution of Disputes to Strengthen Business Relationships

GLOBAL POUND CONFERENCE: THE FUTURE OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION

The Global Pound Conference is a worldwide ADR study effort, organized 40 years after the original 1976 Pound conference (named in honor of the great American jurist Roscoe Pound) which launched the modern ADR movement. Its declared purposes are to engage all stakeholders in the dispute resolution world (Parties/Users; Advisors/Lawyers; Providers of Adjudicative Services; Providers of Non-Adjudicative Services; and Influencers/Researches/Educators), to examine how well (or poorly) current dispute resolution processes are working, and to explore what the future of dispute resolution should be. [. . . Read More]

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Jim Groton is a retired partner of the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, where he formerly led the Construction Practice and Dispute Prevention and Resolution practices of that firm.

As a practicing lawyer during Atlanta’s building boom in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he specialized in construction matters, transitioning from trial lawyer, to troubleshooter, to behind-the -scenes counselor, to problem solver, to pioneer in the application of proactive techniques for preventing, controlling, de-escalating, and achieving the earliest possible resolution of disputes.

In his practice he achieved a remarkable record of success in helping to “keep the peace“ on numerous construction projects and in other business relationships and transactions.

He was an early student and advocate of newly-invented dispute prevention processes such as partnering, dispute review boards, and incentives to encourage cooperation, and he has sponsored research into documenting the relative transaction costs of various methods of addressing disputes, to provide empirical data for business executives making decisions about selecting the most appropriate methods for dealing with potential disputes.

Over time his experience has convinced him that proactive pre-dispute processes that prevent and de-escalate disputes are the most cost-effective and time-saving ways to prevent disputes and strengthen business relationships.

Since his retirement from law practice he has remained as active as ever, enjoying the luxury of freedom to pursue a variety of interests that are an extension of his career long passion of providing, mitigating, and finding efficient ways of addressing problems and potential disputes

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