I choose this drawing to illustrate one of my most important professional guidelines as counsel, arbitrator or mediator: the “No Judgement Rule”.

I did this drawing as a Christmas card in the year I was preparing for the Second Legal State Examination aka the German Bar Exam.

Those who know law students in Germany know that they work with these huge collections of statutes that look like brick stones 🧱 There are two of these actually: one for all criminal and civil law statues, and one for all administrative and constitutional codes. They come with a card board casing that is typically used as a type of brace — a world of its own…

Anyway: the No Judgement Rule is one of my major guiding principles. Never judge anybody for their behavior and their motivations alone. It will not help you get to the bottom of things and to provide real assistance. It is not always an easy exercise. But I wouldn’t want to do it any other way.

#DrawingFromThePast #NoJudgement #Arbitration #DisputeResolution

𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴:
𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳’𝘴 #20YearsInPractice. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘐 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 — 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘭, 𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 — 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴. 𝘌𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.