Marketplace Money, a National Public Radio program covering personal finance and business issues, just featured “Courting a Mediator”, a story highlighting the benefits mediation can offer individuals and businesses seeking a confidential and time- and cost-saving alternative to litigation.

You can tune in to the story here.

As the Internet grows in influence, more and more does the business of the real world become intertwined and run parallel with the dealings of the digital world.

In cyberspace, we engage in commerce, form communities, and share ideas. We even reside at digital addresses where we receive mail or visitors. Not only does the Internet facilitate real-world transactions and interactions, but it has also provided the matrix from which virtual worlds have sprung.

The events and activities that transpire on the Internet hold real-world consequences and questions: Who controls the Internet? What relevance does the geography of the real world, with its territorial boundaries and laws, have to cyberspace which transcends the bounds of physical borders? What law applies to Internet transactions? And who decides? If disputes arise in cyberspace, as most surely they do, by what mechanism should they be resolved?

This month’s edition of First Monday, an online peer-reviewed journal on the phenomenon of the Internet, takes up these questions and ponders the nexus between cyberspace and law in a fascinating collection of articles entitled, “Law and Borders: The Rise of Law in Cyberspace, Ten Years Later“.

Included in this collection are:

• “Law and Borders: The Rise of Law in Cyberspace“(originally published in May 1996), along with “The Great Debate — Law in the Virtual World,” both by David G. Post and David R. Johnson
• “Virtual Borders: The Interdependence of Real and Virtual Worlds,” by James Grimmelmann
• “The Life of the Law Online,” by David R. Johnson
• “Dispute Resolution Without Borders: Some Implications for the Emergence of Law in Cyberspace,” by Ethan Katsh

First Monday, as its name suggests, is published on the first Monday of each month.

Anyone who runs a business knows that success depends upon meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations.

No one seems to know that better than Patrick Lamb, an attorney whose deep commitment to exceptional client service has motivated him to publish In Search of Perfect Client Service, a blog aimed at inspiring the legal community to go the distance for clients.

(Patrick, incidentally, hosts this week’s Blawg Review, the weekly review of law blogging hosted each week at a different blog.)

Not just attorneys but mediators and other dispute resolution professionals should visit Patrick’s blog to find plenty of ideas to guide them in their own quest for the holy grail of outstanding service for clients. Explore Patrick’s posts by sampling his list of categories (located in the right column), and take time as well to hunt through his blogroll (in the left column) for links to other great resources on running and marketing a successful practice–in particular his article on Michelle Golden, who publishes Golden Practices, a blog filled with ideas and tips for professional service firms.

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.