Praise for Structured Negotiation

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On this page you can read what people say about Lainey Feingold’s book, Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits.  First published in 2016, the second edition (2021) is availavble in digital and print formats on Amazon and other online book sellers.  Lainey’s book is available on BookShare.

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Building a more inclusive and accessible world takes patience, partnership and persistence, and a copy of this book! Lainey is the expert on how to work collaboratively to create long term societal inclusion.

Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft

This book is for every lawyer (on both sides of the fence) willing to acknowledge that most of our procedural wrangles, discovery disputes and expert battles don’t actually get us any closer to solving our clients’ concerns. Any lawyer and any client willing to focus on the fix rather than the fight can and should read this book. Lainey Feingold has done a service to the legal profession that will give us all better nights’ sleep, fewer ulcers and longer and more rewarding careers.

John Waldo, disability rights lawyer

Law students, lawyers young and old, law professors — read the book, but do not put it on the shelf until you have spent some time reading and self-reflecting on the collaborative tools that are discussed in Chapter 16.

Tom Valenti, Chicago-based conflict resolution specialist, co-founder Mediators without Borders

What a great resource — packed with useful information, legalese made readable, and it shares valuable insights on the way digital accessibility is (mis)understood by those outside our community of advocates and consumers. If you care about equal access t o communications technology, get the book, read it, and share it widely. it will help you talk about a complex issue directly and positively.

Sharron Rush, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Knowbility

This book is a must-read for anyone in the accessibility field. It’s also a great read for anyone in the web design or development field, as it paints accessibility negotiations as something we can all do, together. Lainey Feingold’s extensive experience and positive outlook really shine in this book, and I’m so happy she wrote it. I keep coming back to it again and again as a driver for progress in web accessibility and advancing civil rights.

Marcy Sutton, Independent Web Developer and Accessibility Advocate

If I was a consumer with a complaint against a corporation, I would also use this book. I would find out if my lawyer had it, if he did not, I would lend it to him.

John Williams

Lainey has been walking the parallel walk to the growing ranks of us who have shifted our practice to representing clients in non-adversarial approaches to resolving disputes like Collaborative Law, early mediation and settlement counsel. I have read her book, and it is a great teaching tool for this kind of dispute resolution with some practical “how to” sections and helpful anecdotals. Well worth adding to the library of any problem-solving, resolution by design lawyers

Michael Zeytoonian, Dispute Resolution Counsel LLC (Boston, MA)

A great book. Lainey applies a rigorous, step-by-step protocol to resolve ADA nationwide access claims. These are cutting-edge techniques that can be modified for early dispute resolution of standard business disputes without lawsuits. An eye-opening book for general counsel, litigators, and general business lawyers.

Peter Silverman, partner at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP (Toledo Ohio)

If you are a lawyer, an advocate or a person who would like to learn how to reduce conflict in situations where people share vastly different perspectives, you’ve got to read this book.

Jessie Lorenz, Structured Negotiation participant

Having read this useful book, I will evaluate the alternative of Structured Negotiation in all my future “cases.”

Jocelyn Larkin, Executive Director of the Impact Fund

As a claimant representative in Structured Negotiation I had a seat at the table and a role in the outcome of the case. I highly recommend this book to advocates in all fields looking for a kinder but equally effective approach to achieving social change and resolving disputes.

Susan Mazrui, Structured Negotiation participant and public policy executive

Your book made me a successful accessibility designer and a happier human being. The impact on how I do my work is incredible. There’s less drama and folks are more curious and eager to learn about digital accessibility. I don’t go to sleep every day thinking about arguments I’ll have to “battle” tomorrow, and I’m collaborating with folks to launch products that are leagues more accessible than work I’ve done in the past.

Josh Kim, Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)

I’ve participated in a Structured Negotiation with Lainey Feingold and have seen first-hand how it achieves real benefits that are broader, less costly, and arrive much faster than through traditional litigation. This book proves that zealous advocacy and civility can coexist in the practice of law. It should be required reading for all lawyers.

Denise Norgle, Division General Counsel, TransUnion LLC (retired)

This book offers an easy-to-read roadmap for a creative new approach to resolving legal disputes that will benefit all clients, from the most powerful corporation to the most disempowered individual. It should be mandatory reading for law students and every practicing litigation lawyer.

David Lepofsky, visiting professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto Canada

Just after starting law school, I read a book called “Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits” by Lainey Feingold, a very accomplished disability civil rights attorney. I was inspired (and comforted) by her work and the unconventional way she approaches it, and I feel similarly when learning more about mediation. Both have made me feel as though there is a space for someone like me in law.

Law student (requesting anonymity) from their written reflections submitted to law professor

Into accessibility? I highly recommend this book! I love how it focuses on the positive!

Marcy Sutton, Web Developer and Accessibility Advocate

Structured Negotiation by Lainey Feingold is essential reading for all who need accessibility.

Joseph O’Connor, WordPress accessibility evangelist

This fantastic guide to Structured Negotiation provides valuable insights for anyone interested in becoming a better advocate. Readers learn effective strategies through easy-to-follow explanations with fascinating anecdotes from the author’s work as a disability rights attorney. I really enjoyed reading this book and appreciate all the lessons within

Haben Girma, Human rights lawyer and author of the best seller, Haben, the Deaf blind Woman who Conquered Harvard Law

Our lawyers and clients in Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and Texas have used Structured Negotiation to great success. We’re excited that Lainey wrote this book to give lawyers and advocates in all practice areas access to this highly effective method for resolving legal claims.

Curt Decker, JD, Executive Director, National Disability Rights Network

It was a delight to work with Lainey to help her shape her 20 years of work in distinguishing a brand new approach for resolving legal disputes, that she has appropriately named Structured Negotiation. . . . I honor Lainey for her years of thoughtful development of this process and the hard work it takes to write such a terrific book.

Daniel Bowling, Mediator and Public Policy Facilitator

This book is a great tool for teaching the art of Structured Negotiation. It offers real-world examples and tips on moving through obstacles and resolving disputes in a collaborative fashion.

Amy F Peterson, attorney, Equip for Equality (Chicago, IL)

Lainey’s book has great value to us in Basque Country, Spain. It presents the Structured Negotiation methodology showing a multitude of cases in which it has been successful. Structured Negotiation is a brilliant method that sets aside confrontation in relationships and moves us towards a peaceful coexistence.

Marta Ruiz Cerrillo, Basque Country Collaborative Law Association

Lainey Feingold’s thoughtful and experienced-based distillation of her new approach to resolving disputes through Structured Negotiation has the potential to make a major impact on how we resolve disputes. Bearing strong similarities to Collaborative Law, and integrating well with mediation, the  Structured Negotiation model provides a detailed roadmap for principled peacemaking in complex cases.

David Hoffman, Esq., Founder, Boston Law Collaborative, LLC; John H. Watson, Jr. Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

As one of America’s leading civil rights lawyers, Lainey Feingold uses Structured Negotiation to obtain far-reaching settlements without litigation. Now she shares her secrets. This book should be required reading for lawyers and law students alike.

Samuel R. Bagenstos, Frank G. Millard Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; Former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

Structured Negotiation has a reach far beyond the legal world. Imagine if routine business and design challenges were solved with a process that assumed the win-win outcomes described in this book. Lainey’s focus on cooperation, collaboration, and problem-solving points the way to a world designed for everyone.

Whitney Quesenbery, Director, Center for Civic Design; co-Author, A Web for Everyone | Designing Accessible User Experiences

Daniel Bowling shepherded Structured Negotiation through the writing process. Read Daniel’s full comments below.

Read Tom Valenti’s full review of Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits

Read Jocelyn Larkin’s review of Lainey’s book on the Impact Fund Blog

Read Whitney Quesenbery’s review of Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits in UXPA Magazine, the magazine of the User Experience Professionals Association.

Read John Williams’ full review on Assistive Technology Today


Full comments of Daniel Bowling, Chair of the Publications Board for the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution

It was a delight to work with Lainey to help her shape her 20 years of work in distinguishing a brand new approach for resolving legal disputes, that she has appropriately named Structured Negotiation. Lainey’s new approach lives in the formerly impact space between costly and risky litigation and mediation. Unfortunately, in far too many cases mediation is failing to fulfill the dreams of those of us who started that movement in the 80s. We envisioned creating a party-centered approach for resolving conflict. Instead mediation is become dominated by far too many retired judges, who continue in their role of judging, while misnaming what they do as mediation.

Lainey’s Structured Negotiation, instead, actually teaches the parties and their lawyers now to structure a process based on talking directly to each without the intervention of a 3rd party neutral. It is true party-empowerment. It is also an example of what our world desperately needs right now – a process for empowering individuals to have difficult conversations rather than fighting, literally or legally. If we are to save our planet for our children and grands (as we say in my home of South Carolina) we MUST learn to sit down and reason together, to collaborate in order to resolve our differences and together create a better world.

I honor Lainey for her years of thoughtful development of this process and the hard work it takes to write such a terrific book.”

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Dispute Resolution Magazine

Read a short review of the Structured Negotiation book that was part of the 2017 Summer issue of the Dispute Resolution Magazine, published by Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association.