Picture It Settled Lite Logo
Don has created a software that has captured time and money data without identifying parties. There are clear patterns here, and this app helps add the element of factual outcomes with the emotions and psychology.
San Antonio, TX (PRWEB) December 13, 2011
Picture It Settled™ develops enterprise software to help litigants analyze their positions and plot successful negotiation strategies. Using patent-pending algorithms and neural networks crawling over thousands of cases and settlement negotiations, the software helps negotiators do hard-headed case evaluations and design successful negotiating strategies around them.
The enterprise software was developed by San Antonio attorney-mediator Don Philbin with the expert assistance of software engineers at Southwest Research Institute®. Some of that functionality has been made available in a Lite version with the help of Endeavour Software Technologies. Picture It Settled™ Lite became available in the Apple Store on November 30, 2011 and in the Android Market last night. An instructional video and installation links are available at http://www.PictureItSettled.com.
“Picture It Settled is an exciting new application. It takes cutting edge negotiation theory first published by Don Philbin in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review (“HNLR”) and transforms it into an invaluable tool for practitioners and litigants involved in real world settlement negotiations,” according to New York litigator and former HNLR editor-in-chief Cari Wint.
The Lite version tracks the dollar moves in negotiation. But, perhaps more importantly, it also tracks the time interval between offers. The app then takes that offer history and projects it out in both dollars and time to help parties picture whether and when they might reach a deal.
“Just seeing offers on a graph like this can be helpful enough in planning your next move, but the app also helps you to plan that move by making it easy to make a new offer that matches the dollar amount or percentage change of your last offer, or the dollar amount or percentage change of your opponent's last offer,” commented litigator and blogger Jeff Richardson at iPhone J.D.
Importantly, the app graphs the effects of such moves on the likelihood of reaching settlement by testing whether the offer patterns on each side will lead to a deal – the point at which the lines intersect on the graph.
“Don has created a software that has captured time and money data without identifying parties. There are clear patterns here, and this app helps add the element of factual outcomes with the emotions and psychology,” said John Allen Chalk, litigator and former chair of the Texas Bar ADR Section in a recent San Antonio Business Journal piece describing the Apple version.
Early reviews from both sides of the docket and general counsel have been positive. “Explaining settlement dynamics – especially concessions – to clients is often difficult. Picture It Settled provides a powerful graphic and logic to help deliver the message. I really like that,” said noted plaintiff’s attorney Royal Lea. “The Picture It Settled app is brilliant. It is a sophisticated tool to help parties explore their options and develop successful negotiation strategies,” commented Erin Gleason Alvarez, Director of the Office of Dispute Resolution at Chartis.
Lou Solomon, the Cadwalader litigation co-chair recognized by the U.S. Legal Directory as Best of Class in Commercial Litigation, said, “Leave it to Don Philbin to lead the way in utilizing technology to assist the negotiator and practitioner. He has done it again with this clever and elegant, smart and handy app.” Long-time general counsel of a global company, John DeGroote, said that, “Picture It Settled gives negotiators immediate, objective input into their next move. With Don Philbin's new app, 'Where's this discussion headed?' now has a more scientific answer."
Master mediator, peacemaker, and author Doug Noll noted that, “This software takes a lot of the guesswork out of concession strategies in negotiations. By doing that, it allows your System 2 mind to focus on driving to settlement without as many emotional and cognitive distractions. Very useful tool to any negotiator or mediator.”
About Picture It Settled, LLC
Picture It Settled™ develops enterprise software to help litigants analyze their positions and plot successful negotiation strategies. Using patent-pending algorithms and neural networks crawling over thousands of cases and settlement negotiations, the software helps negotiators do hard-headed case evaluations and design successful negotiating strategies around them.
Don Philbin, J.D., M.B.A., LL.M., is an AV-rated attorney-mediator with extensive business, legal, and negotiation experience and education. He has resolved disputes and crafted deals for more than two decades as a business and commercial litigator, general counsel, and president of technology-related companies. Don holds a Masters of Law degree from Pepperdine’s top-ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, where he is now an adjunct professor, has been trained at and published through Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, is an elected Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, the American Academy of Civil Trial Mediators, the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, and the American College of e-Neutrals, and was one of the first U.S. mediators certified under the international standards established by the International Mediation Institute. He has mediated hundreds of individual and class matters in a wide variety of substantive areas and serves as a neutral on several panels, including CPR’s Panels of Distinguished Neutrals. Don has published widely in the field, is Co-Chair of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Negotiation Committee, and a member of the ADR Section Council of the State Bar of Texas. Mr. Philbin is listed in The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation, The Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers, and The Best Lawyers in San Antonio. His firm is listed in the U.S. News and Best Lawyers “Best Law Firm” survey and the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Don was recently recognized as the 2011 Outstanding Lawyer (Mediation) by the San Antonio Business Journal.
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