ORANGE — At first glance, Stephen J. Sundvold’s legal pad looks like that of any other mediator: Dates and dollar amounts are scribbled in blue ink across the yellow paper, premediation notes are scrawled on a diagonal in the margins. But each pad has a secret buried in its depths — a dollar amount Sundvold estimates the deal will settle at etched into the cardboard backing.
It’s a game he likes to play, with no particula... (continued)