JimGroton.com

Jim has been a pioneer in his law practice and in his dispute resolution work in the use of strategies and systems for proactively anticipating, preventing, controlling and managing problems that might otherwise escalate into disputes.  He has served as a counselor to businesses, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations on the design, drafting and implementation of such systems.

Early in his law practice in the construction industry Jim became a student of the many ways that the construction industry has invented to "keep the peace" on construction projects.  Throughout his career he has been active in efforts to advocate and improve upon those techniques.

The following catalogue of some of his activities during the past 25 years provides an excellent outline of the history of the development of what might accurately be called "the next big step in dispute resolution," namely the design and implementation of systems for dispute prevention, control and early resolution.

In 1987 at one of the earliest Construction Litigation Superconferences Jim presented a seminal paper which advocated a holistic approach to construction project organization and execution, urging the systematic use of a series of dispute prevention and control techniques, tailored to the needs of a specific project.

In 1990 Jim was a principal speaker at an American Arbitration Association "Leadership Conference" where dispute resolution professionals compared experiences in various industries and businesses.  Jim's description of  the construction industry's  "spectrum of dispute avoidance and resolution devices" prompted the Conference to discuss and propose that these techniques and systems be applied to the prevention of disputes in all areas of business activity.

In 1990 and 1991 Jim served as Co-Chair of the CPR Committee on Prevention and Resolution of Construction Disputes, which undertook to identify and study all of the construction industry's innovations in the field of preventing, controlling and managing disputes.  The Committee's work product was a seminal book which provided the first systematic analyses of these techniques and how they can be combined into systems.

Jim was one of the creators of the "Dispute Resolution Stages and Steps" chart which graphically illustrates the process by which problems which are not immediately solved continue to escalate, resulting in increasing  hostility, cost and time to achieve resolution, and prescribes appropriate tools for dealing with those problems through the escalating stages.

In 1991 Jim was a keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Construction Industry Institute, the industry's leading research and leadership forum, where he proposed that CII become a leader in engaging in research and implementation of the lessons contained in the CPR study.

From 1991 to 1993 Jim was a member of the Construction Industry Institute's Dispute Prevention and Resolution Research Team, which developed more than a dozen instructional and practical products for the prevention and control of disputes, including the Disputes Potential Index, and which presented many programs at CII meetings on the design and implementation of systems for the prevention and resolution of disputes.  (This Research Team received CPR's Award for Outstanding Practical Achievement in Dispute Resolution in 1994).

In 1991 Jim became a co-founder and Chair of the Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Task Force (DART) which undertook a three-year effort to promote more widespread use of systems for prevention, control and management of disputes throughout the construction industry.

In 1992 and 1993 Jim expanded his dispute prevention activities to industries and organizations outside the construction industry, presenting some early programs to business groups involved in taxation, insurance, antitrust and banking.

In 1994 he served as an advisor to the Internal Revenue Service on developing processes for controlling and resolving complicated Transfer Pricing disputes.

In the mid-1990's he was active in the organization of the Foundation for the Prevention and Early Resolution of Conflict (PERC) and served on the Advisory Board of that foundation.

In his law practice Jim advised various departments of his law firm on prevention techniques, authored a manual for his law firm on the prevention and early resolution of disputes, and helped to implement dispute prevention programs for clients.

His work over the years has included investigation, research, writing, teaching, speaking, and conducting seminars and workshops on all aspects of conflict anticipation and prevention in many different kinds of business relationships.  Among these activities have been the following:

Lecturer on techniques and systems for dispute prevention and resolution at Emory University Law School, Georgia State University Law School, Mercer University Law School, Clemson University, Princeton University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, University of Colorado School of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Texas School of Engineering.

Instructor of a graduate course in "Preventing and Resolving Construction Disputes" at Georgia Institute of Technology School of Architecture, 2002.

As chair of the dispute prevention and resolution committee of the National Academy of Construction he organized a major conference at the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 on the subject of  "Reducing Construction Costs: Best Practices in Preventing and Controlling Construction Disputes."

On behalf of CII and the National Academy of Construction Jim has helped to sponsor and direct empirical research into quantifying the relative costs of various methods of dispute resolution  to provide data upon which business leaders can make intelligent choices of dispute prevention and resolution methods.  (This research is described in "Dispute Resolution Transactional Cost Quantification: What Does Resolving a Dispute Really Cost?" in Tommelein, I.D. (Ed): Construction Research Congress 2005 - Broadening Perspectives. Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Research Congress 2005. Authors: Gebken, R. J., Gibson, G.E. & Groton, J.P.)

Jim has periodically presented programs at CII meetings, and in 2006 and 2007 he taught CII Construction Leadership courses in dispute prevention systems at the McComb Graduate School of Business at the University of Texas.

In 2006 he conducted a dispute prevention workshop at the LexisNexis conference in Bejing, China "Applying Dispute Prevention and Early Resolution Approaches to Conducting Business out of China," and presented a paper on the subject of "An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure."

In 2007 he presented another workshop and a paper on prevention of disputes at a conference in Turku, Finland.

(The foregoing two conferences in China and Finland were possibly the first forums held anywhere in the world outside of  the construction industry which were convened for the purpose of  preventing, as contrasted with resolving, disputes)

Jim has participated as an active member of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) in developing programs and writing articles and papers on how businesses can use construction industry dispute prevention methods in commercial contracts and transactions.  He was co-author of a paper presented at the 2007 London conference of European, Middle Eastern and African members of IACCM, and he conducted a prevention workshop at the IACCM Americas Conference in 2008.

Jim is currently working with the Construction Advisory Committee of the CPR Institute on the publication of three "construction prevention best practices" monographs scheduled for publication in 2009 which describe Realistic Risk Allocation, Partnering, and Dispute Review Boards. and describe how those techniques can be used in other businesses and industries (he is a co-author of the Risk Allocation monograph).

He is also currently serving on a CPR Institute exploratory committee to determine how CPR can best encourage its  corporate members to adopt and use better dispute prevention techniques.

Awards and Honors for Dispute Prevention Systems Work:

Jim has received the following awards and honors for his pioneering work in advocating the use of techniques and systems for preventing and controlling disputes:

•  Honorary Membership in the American Institute of Architects in 1985 for his work as "a true problem solver for the entire construction industry"

•  Medal of Excellence from Engineering News-Record in 1993 for "significant construction industry achievement" in encouraging the use of dispute prevention and resolution processes in the industry

•  Co-recipient of a 1994 award from CPR for "outstanding practical achievement in alternative dispute resolution" as a member of the CII Dispute Prevention and Resolution Research Team

•  Election to membership in the National Academy of Construction in 2002 for "Leadership in developing Alternate Dispute Resolution Techniques for the Construction Industry"

Presentations and publications on dispute systems:

The titles of the following representative selection of papers, presentations and publications of which Jim been the author or major contributor trace the evolution of dispute resolution during the past generation from Litigation, to Arbitration, to Mediation and other consensual forms of ADR, and more recently to systems for the proactive Prevention of disputes:

•  Latest Strategies Pertaining to Loss Control in a Litigious Environment. Construction Litigation Superconferences, 1987 and 1988

•  Dispute Resolution Devices for the Construction Industry: A Spectrum of Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Devices, AAA Leadership Conference, Princeton, N.J. 1990, published in The PunchList, Vol. 13 Nos 3 and 4

•  Preventing and Resolving Construction Disputes, CPR, 1991  (Jim was a major contributor)

• Dispute Prevention and Resolution: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Construction with Emphasis on Dispute Review Boards, CII Source Document 95, 1993 (Principal author, Professor Michael C. Vorster) (Jim was a major contributor)

•  Disputes Potential Index, CII Research Report SD-101 (1994) and CII Special Publication 23-3 (1995) (Jim was a major contributor)

•  Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan Manual for Using Private Dispute Resolution Clauses in Business Agreements, 1995

•  The Newest in ADR Approaches: A Review of Some Innovative Techniques the Construction Industry Has Developed That Are Transferable to Other Industries, Georgia Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1995

•  New Techniques for Preventing, Controlling and Resolving Disputes, 1995

• ADR as a Part of Law Practice, Georgia Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1995

•  Keeping the Peace:  The Use of Early ADR Procedures, ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, 1996

•  Using ADR in Corporate and Banking Transactions, State Bar of Georgia Banking Law Section, 1996

•  Preventive Lawyering, 1996.  (Prepared for a client's legal department)

•  The Evolution of Dispute Resolution:  Lessons in Designing Systems for the Prevention, Control and Early Resolution of Disputes, SPIDR Annual Conference, 1997

• Chapter on "The Progressive or ‘Stepped' Approach to ADR:  Designing Systems to Prevent, Control, and Resolve Disputes," Construction Dispute Resolution Formbook, Wiley, 1997

•  Why Transactional Lawyers Should Use Private Dispute Resolution Clauses in Business Agreements, 1998

•  The Use of Dispute Management, Control and Early Resolution Techniques by Corporate and Transactional Lawyers, 1999

•  ADR in the Corporate Setting:  Ethical Issues in the Use of Dispute Management, Control, and Early Resolution Techniques by Corporate and Transactional Lawyers, Atlanta Bar Association, 1999

Jim has also written chapters describing the development of construction dispute prevention and resolution techniques contained in the following books:  Alternative Dispute Resolution: The Litigator's Handbook, ABA, 2000;  American Arbitration: Principles and Practice, Practicing Law Institute, 2008;  Construction Law, ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, 2008

• The Use of Dispute Management, Control and Early Resolution Techniques in International Business Transactions, International Dispute Resolution Conference, Salzburg, Austria, Center for International Legal Studies, 2002

•  A New Frontier in Dispute Resolution:  The ‘Up Front' Prevention, Control and Early Resolution of Disputes, ABA Dispute Resolution Section Annual Meeting, 2004

•  The Construction Industry's Guide to Dispute Avoidance and Resolution, American Arbitration Association, 2004.  (Jim was a major contributor)

• Chapter on "Forms I Use for Prevention and Resolution of Disputes" in Construction Project Formbook, Aspen, 2004

• "The ‘Up Front' Prevention, Control and Early Resolution of Disputes," published in Proceedings of the Corporate Contracting Capabilities Conference, Turku (Finland) University of Applied Sciences, 2007

• "From Reaction to Proactive Action:  Dispute Prevention Processes in Business Agreements," published in the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Contract and Commercial Management, London, International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, 2007  (co-authored with Helena Haapio)

• "Zero Disputes?  Collaboration Lessons Learned From the Construction Industry," Contracting Excellence (International Association for Contract and Commercial Management) Dececember, 2007

• "Converting the Construction Industry's ‘Disputes Potential Index' Into a ‘Success Potential Index' For Any Kind of Business Relationship," Contracting Excellence (International Association for Contract and Commercial Management), February, 2008

• "Preventive Practices: Lessons from the Construction Industry," in Preventive Law and Problem Solving, Vandeplas Publishing, 2009

Further detailed information on the developing field of proactively anticipating and preventing disputes can be found in the "Scrapbook" section of this web site.