Please recount a “war story” in your experience of a negotiation approach that went spectacularly well and explain how/why it worked.

I once represented a small German company when a French company was in the process of buying it. The owner’s daughter died suddenly of a heart attack during the negotiations and the two attorneys on either side held the deal together. Negotiations were conducted in a polite and respectful way following the death, and we signed the contract. One year later, the French corporation called me to see if I would represent them. They liked the way hard negotiations were conducted in a fair and honest way. At the end of the day it’s always good if the two negotiators can see the bigger picture and try to bring interests together. Even if they negotiate hard, they need to be fair and honest with each other. Building trust with a negotiator can be helpful when parties get emotional.