Counsel Comments: Some mediators do not possess sufficient skills or training to be effective. Others have been criticized for not ending the process when the interests of each party are not receiving balanced treatment. If the mediator is a lawyer, he or she often has to make an adjustment in attitude. Unlike the lawyer, who tells the client what to do, a mediator must allow the parties enough freedom to structure their own unique solutions to problems. Mediation by attorneys has raised the concern of whether one lawyer can adequately advise two parties with opposing interests and whether a mediator can invoke the attorney-client privilege in any future litigation. For example, if lawyers are present with the parties at mediation sessions and incriminating or damaging statements are made by a client, a lawyer may seek to prevent a judge or jury from hearing such statements in court when the mediation fails. A judge may not allow such oral testimony to be admitted in court depending on a number of facts, such as whether the parties formally agreed beforehand that such statements were confidential and could not be introduced in subsequent court hearings.