INSTITUTE FOR CONFLICT MGMT.

The Institute for Conflict Management, LLC (ICM) was founded in 1995, in response to a need for skilled, independent, and industry specific dispute resolutionists and training programs.

Statistics show that the majority of all construction projects finish behind schedule and over-budget. Frustrated, parties frequently resort to litigation, and spend significant portions of their construction budget on litigation costs.

ICM offers a better alternative - Premier hospitality, construction, and real estate industry veterans - true subject matter experts, thoroughly trained to resolve your problems through: mediation, arbitration, conciliation, or by using ICM's own Issue Review Board™ process.

Simply put, ICM helps you stay out of court, keeps your projects moving forward, and helps ensure you protect the valuable commercial relationships you've worked so hard to build.

ICM's panel consists of individuals who are considered experts in the construction, commercial real estate and hospitality industries. All members of ICM's panel have served in at least one of these industries, in the roles of architect, contractor, developer, engineer, or consultant. Depending on the nature of your project, and the nature of the issue, ICM will individually choose those members who have experience in the area of your particular situation, and will offer these individuals to help you in resolving your disputes.

Admission to ICM's panel is by invitation only. Panelists are hand-selected and not all applicants are accepted. ICM requires its panelists to be industry experts with over 15 years of hands-on experience in their field. ICM requires nine days of intensive, high-level dispute resolution training with ICM's senior instructors; 30 hours of mediation training; 30 hours of arbitration training; and 20 hours of Issue Review Board™ training in order to be qualified to act as Mediator, Arbitrator, Conciliator, or Issue Review Board™ member. Each applicant must provide professional and personal references, complete an interview, and accept ICM's Ethical Standards before being carefully screened by ICM’s Board for acceptance.

Administering the IRB process internally can be very difficult. Locating panelists with the appropriate industry experience and a high level of dispute resolution training is not easy. Maintaining neutrality among the various players can be tricky. Keeping track of paperwork and coordinating the process can become a full-time job.

As an example, a report issued by the Florida Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General, surveyed the FDOT Dispute Review Board process, which was administered internally to 108 projects in 2000-2001. The report uncovered some unsettling results. Specifically, not all members serving on their panel were found to have adequate training and only a small percent of the panelists available staffed most of their Boards (only 5 of the candidates accounted for over half of the monies paid in the two years). Moreover, the report discovered insufficient record keeping of essential DRB documents – in short, some of the internal administration was faulty. Effective internal administration of an Issue Review Board process is complicated.

ICM offers not only an extensive panel of neutral IRB experts, but also administration of the process in an efficient, impartial, and thorough manner.

Because delayed projects are costly from both a financial and time perspective, parties are wise to involve an IRB to eliminate uncertainty and greatly reduce the risk of litigation.

Please see my newsletter article entitled Early Warnings Lead to Early Resolutions – a Boon for the Construction Industry.