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Laboratory for Advancing Dispute Resolution Skills

From the Dispute Resolution Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law

All Bad News

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Resources > All Bad News

Duration: varied

NextGen: Yes 

Teaching Notes: Yes

Skills: Client Counseling | Communication 

Skill Levels: Basic 

Type of Resources: Simulation 

Subjects: Client Counseling | Contracts | Doctrinal Subjects | Torts 

Modality: Both Online and In-Person

Participants: pairs or 2

All Bad News 

Marjorie Corman Aaron 

 

All the simulations in this folder are aimed at the same thing: delivering bad news to clients without backlash! The major difference is the practice context in which they sit: intellectual property, personal injury, employment, contract, real estate development, or appellate. Most but not all reference pending litigation. In many instances, the “bad news” is an opposition motion likely to succeed (summary judgment!), or a liability defense likely to be successful or not, whichever way is bad news for the client. In others, it’s predicted failure to achieve an agreement term, or an inescapable increase in estimated costs. Most of them are quite short, focused solely on the bad news task. Two of them – Hapless Harvest and Upscale – are somewhat longer.

All Bad News: Teaching Note (PDF)

All Bad News: Bad Apple Fee News – Certain Client Conversations Are Challenging (PDF)

All Bad News: Client Science – Chapter 1. Bad News and the Fully Informed Client (PDF)

All Bad News: Dashing Design Dreams (PDF)

All Bad News: Hapless Harvest – Client Counseling Exercise Teaching Note (PDF)

All Bad News: Hapless Harvest – Client Counseling Skills Exercise (PDF)

All Bad News: Imagining Real Bad News and Wishing for Magic (PDF)

All Bad News: Iffy & Inky (PDF)

All Bad News: Patently Pushed (PDF)

All Bad News: Tea Troubles – Information for the Attorney (PDF)

All Bad News: Tea Troubles – Information for the Client (PDF)

All Bad News: The Appeal of Big Bad News (PDF)

All Bad News: Upscale Upcharges (PDF)

 

Laboratory for Advancing Dispute Resolution Skills Teaching

Dispute Resolution Insitute at Mitchell Hamline School of law

875 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105-3076 | dri@mitchellhamline.edu

© 2025 Mitchell Hamline School of Law in affiliation with Hamline University.