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Architect's Essentials of Negotiation, Second Edition By Ava J. Abramowitz (Wiley Publications, 2009)
Reviewed by James F. Nagle
Al construction lawyers should have three abilities, whether they are transaction lawyers or litigators: to write clearly, to speak persuasively, and to negotiate well.
I firmly believe that some people are born with innate abilities to play baseball, sing, or negotiate. But even those of us not blessed with such natural abilities can improve our skills through training and practice. Sometimes that training is not running the bases on a diamond, but simply reading a good book, chock-full of practical, hard-won lessons from a lifetime of experience. Architect's Essentials of Negotiations is such a book.
Readers of my previous reviews know that I really like second editions. Second editions mean that the first edition was successful enough that the publisher wanted to come out with a subsequent edition. It also allows the author to improve upon the first edition, not only by considering the suggestions invariably received from readers, but also by reflecting on how something could have been better presented and by illustrating various principles with better or more up-to-date examples.
The book, while published by Wiley, is also under the auspices of the American Institute of Architects. The book is particularly useful to architects, as it has architectural examples and references to the AIA forms throughout. But don't think of this as a book just for architects. In fact, if I had one suggestion, I would eliminate that word from the title and just call it Essentials of Negotiation.
The book is not...