During 18 years of practicing law, I once showed up for a court-ordered mediation session in a case where the two sides were very far apart in their settlement positions. Scheduled to last three hours, the meeting began with the mediator asking the two sides to state their current positions. Fifteen minutes later, the mediator said, “Well, we can either sit here and look at each other for the next two hours and forty-five minutes, or we can go do something useful with our time.”
That’s basically what happened in a Manhattan federal court today during the third and final attempt to try to settle the litigation arising from Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension.