Alternative Dispute Resolution Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends In-house Counsel, Contract Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-L-064

Before you join: Participants should have experience working with contracts, workplace disputes, commercial negotiations, claims, complaints or stakeholder disagreements.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Disputes over contracts, projects, employment matters, procurement, shareholder interests and service delivery can consume management time, damage commercial relationships and produce uncertain legal costs. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) offers structured routes to resolve disputes before, alongside or instead of court proceedings. The challenge is selecting an appropriate process, preparing a credible case, negotiating from evidence rather than position, and documenting an agreement that can be implemented and enforced.

This course examines negotiation, mediation, arbitration and related contractual escalation procedures. Participants learn to diagnose conflict, distinguish legal rights from commercial interests, map stakeholders and decision authority, calculate BATNA and WATNA, prepare mediation papers, conduct caucus discussions and assess arbitration clauses. The programme also addresses settlement drafting, confidentiality, privilege, professional conduct, power imbalances and cross-border enforcement considerations. Participants practise making process choices that reflect dispute value, urgency, evidence, contractual terms and relationship priorities.

Instruction combines short practitioner briefings with case analysis, facilitated group work, negotiation simulations and mediation role-plays. Cases reflect common disputes in construction, banking, procurement, employment, infrastructure and commercial supply arrangements. Participants apply course methods to a realistic dispute file and produce a reusable ADR case strategy pack containing a process-selection analysis, negotiation preparation sheet, risk matrix and settlement implementation checklist.

The course suits professionals who manage disputes, advise decision makers, administer contracts or participate in negotiations. It is particularly relevant where early resolution, confidentiality, commercial continuity or reduced legal expenditure are important.

What you will be able to do

  • Select an appropriate ADR process using dispute value, urgency, evidence and relationship criteria
  • Diagnose conflict using stakeholder maps, conflict trees and issue chronologies
  • Prepare a negotiation strategy using BATNA, WATNA, reservation values and MESOs
  • Conduct interest-based negotiation through questioning, reframing and planned concessions
  • Prepare mediation materials including position statements, risk matrices and settlement ranges
  • Apply caucus, reality-testing and option-generation techniques during mediated discussions
  • Assess arbitration clauses for scope, seat, rules, appointment and enforcement risks
  • Draft settlement terms and implementation plans that allocate obligations, deadlines and remedies

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Prepare stronger settlement positions before engaging opposing parties
  • Recognise when mediation offers better value than continued legal escalation
  • Handle difficult conversations without weakening commercial or legal interests
  • Brief senior decision makers on settlement authority and dispute risk
  • Draft clearer settlement terms with fewer implementation ambiguities

For your organisation

  • Reduce avoidable legal spend through earlier, better-prepared resolution discussions
  • Shorten dispute cycle times for supplier, customer, employment and project claims
  • Preserve valuable commercial relationships after contested negotiations
  • Improve consistency in escalation clauses, dispute records and settlement approvals
  • Lower implementation failures through clearer obligations, milestones and default remedies

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can compare ADR options and select a proportionate process for a defined dispute.

  • Dispute systems design: litigation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration and adjudication compared
  • Assessing confidentiality, enforceability, cost, speed and relationship preservation trade-offs
  • Jurisdiction, governing law and forum selection in cross-border commercial disputes
  • Contractual escalation clauses and multi-tier dispute-resolution provisions examined
  • Distinguishing facilitative, evaluative and transformative mediator roles during settlement discussions
  • Ethical boundaries: authority, confidentiality, privilege, disclosure and conflicts of interest

Participants can diagnose the drivers, parties, interests and risks within a dispute.

  • Conflict mapping using positions, interests, needs, stakeholders and decision makers
  • Separating legal issues, commercial interests and relationship concerns
  • Root-cause analysis with the conflict tree method
  • Thomas-Kilmann modes matched to dispute behaviour and intervention choices
  • Power, culture and communication patterns assessed without stereotyping parties
  • Preparing an issues list, chronology and evidence inventory

Participants can prepare and execute an interest-based negotiation strategy supported by objective criteria.

  • Principled Negotiation: people, interests, options and objective criteria
  • BATNA, WATNA and reservation values calculated before bargaining
  • Creating MESOs to test preferences without premature concessions
  • Anchoring, bracketing and concession patterns managed through planned bargaining
  • Objective standards selected from contracts, market practice and legal authority
  • Recording offers, conditional terms and settlement authority accurately

Participants can prepare a structured dispute file for negotiation, mediation or arbitration.

  • Dispute intake interviews structured around facts, interests, risks and authority
  • Chronologies distinguish agreed facts, disputed facts, assumptions and evidential gaps
  • Risk matrices rate merits, remedies, costs, delay and reputational exposure
  • Settlement ranges modelled using decision trees and expected-value analysis
  • Counsel, insurer and business stakeholder roles coordinated before sessions
  • Written position statements framed for persuasion rather than legal pleading

Participants can manage difficult ADR conversations using structured listening and reframing techniques.

  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, summarising, reframing and calibrated questions
  • Reframing accusatory language into issues suitable for joint discussion
  • Nonviolent Communication separates observations, feelings, needs and requests
  • Emotion, face-saving and identity threats handled without conceding substance
  • Caucus conversations protect confidentiality while testing settlement movement
  • Impasse signals identified before parties harden into positional bargaining

Participants can prepare for and participate effectively in commercial mediation.

  • Opening statements establish process, authority, confidentiality and behavioural ground rules
  • Mediator neutrality, impartiality and self-determination distinguished precisely
  • Joint sessions sequence issues, information exchange and option generation
  • Private caucuses test reality, manage risk and develop proposals
  • Reality testing compares proposed settlement with litigation and arbitration outcomes
  • Managing lawyer participation, interpreters and unequal bargaining power

Participants can assess arbitration provisions and manage key procedural decisions.

  • Arbitration agreements assessed for scope, seat, rules and appointment mechanisms
  • ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL procedural features compared for commercial disputes
  • Tribunal jurisdiction, kompetenz-kompetenz and separability explained through clauses
  • Procedural timetables address pleadings, disclosure, witnesses, hearings and costs
  • Document production requests framed with relevance, materiality and proportionality
  • Enforcement risks considered under the New York Convention framework

Participants can draft and review settlement terms that support reliable implementation.

  • Term sheets distinguish binding agreements from non-binding negotiation records
  • Settlement clauses specify parties, releases, payment, confidentiality and default remedies
  • Drafting enforceable mediation settlements under applicable contract law
  • Consent awards and Tomlin orders considered where procedurally available
  • Tax, regulatory, employment and data-protection implications escalated to specialists
  • Implementation plans assign actions, owners, deadlines and verification evidence

Participants can identify ethical and procedural risks that may compromise ADR outcomes.

  • Confidentiality, without-prejudice privilege and admissibility rules distinguished by jurisdiction
  • Conflicts checks identify prior relationships, financial interests and role incompatibilities
  • Capacity, authority and informed consent tested before settlement commitments
  • Bad-faith conduct, coercion and misrepresentation addressed through process safeguards
  • Records management protects mediation notes, personal data and sensitive documents
  • Professional conduct obligations compared with organisational escalation procedures

Participants can build an ADR strategy and governance plan for recurring or live disputes.

  • Selecting ADR pathways through dispute value, urgency, evidence and relationship criteria
  • Building a case-specific ADR strategy from diagnosis through implementation
  • Sequencing negotiation, mediation and arbitration within contractual escalation clauses
  • Preparing sponsor briefings on risk, settlement authority and decision points
  • Tracking leading indicators: cycle time, settlement rate and repeat disputes
  • Personal application plans define one live dispute or recurring pattern

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. ADR process-selection matrix
  2. Conflict mapping and stakeholder analysis template
  3. BATNA, WATNA and reservation-value worksheet
  4. Mediation preparation and position-statement checklist
  5. Settlement agreement review checklist
  6. ADR strategy and implementation plan

Who should attend

  • In-house Counsel — manage disputes while protecting legal position and commercial relationships
  • Contract Managers — resolve performance, payment and variation disputes before escalation
  • Procurement Managers — address supplier disputes through structured contractual procedures
  • Project Managers — manage claims and stakeholder conflict on complex delivery programmes
  • HR and Employee Relations Managers — handle workplace disputes using facilitated resolution methods
  • Compliance and Risk Managers — assess dispute exposure, governance controls and settlement risks

Skills and tools covered

ADR process selectionConflict diagnosisInterest-based negotiationMediation preparationArbitration clause analysisSettlement drafting

Tools and standards

BATNA and WATNA analysis, Principled Negotiation, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, ICC Mediation Rules

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses concise instructor briefings to establish legal and procedural principles, followed by case work based on commercial, employment, procurement and project disputes. Participants analyse dispute files, develop negotiation positions, test settlement ranges and practise mediated conversations in small groups. Simulations include joint sessions, private caucuses and settlement drafting discussions. Facilitated debriefs connect participant choices to BATNA, principled negotiation, confidentiality, authority and enforceability. The final sessions focus on applying an ADR strategy to participants’ own dispute types.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working with contracts, workplace disputes, commercial negotiations, claims, complaints or stakeholder disagreements. Familiarity with basic legal concepts such as contract terms, liability, confidentiality and authority to settle is helpful. The course assumes that participants can read a contract clause and assess business risks from a practical perspective. Prior mediation, arbitration or formal legal training is not required. This is not a substitute for jurisdiction-specific legal advice, court advocacy training or professional mediator accreditation.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have practical exposure to contracts, disputes, stakeholder negotiations or workplace conflict. Prior mediation, arbitration or legal qualification is not required, although basic familiarity with contract terms is useful.

Bring examples of the dispute types, escalation clauses or recurring negotiation challenges you manage, provided these can be shared without breaching confidentiality. A laptop or tablet is useful for completing templates and application planning.

The course is designed for in-house counsel, contract managers, procurement professionals, project leaders, HR specialists, compliance staff and risk managers. It suits people who need to resolve disputes or advise those who do.

This course focuses on selecting and managing ADR processes, preparing settlement strategy and participating effectively in negotiations and mediation. It does not train participants to conduct court advocacy, act as arbitrators or qualify as accredited mediators.

Participants can use the process-selection matrix, negotiation worksheet and settlement checklist when a dispute first arises. The methods also support stronger contract escalation clauses, internal settlement approvals and dispute reporting.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, generally from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between process selection, conflict diagnosis, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, settlement drafting, ethics and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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