David Lax is an American negotiation expert, author, speaker, statistician and academic. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Managing Principal of Lax Sebenius LLC, a firm that advises companies and governments in challenging and complex negotiations, and a former professor at Harvard Business School.
He began his career as a professor at Harvard Business School where he co-founded and directed the Harvard Negotiation Roundtable. After working on Wall Street, he co-founded Lax Sebenius LLC. He has taught and teaches in executive programs on negotiation at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He is co-author with Professor James K. Sebenius of Harvard Business School of 3D Negotiation and The Manager as Negotiator. In 2018, he co-founded Riva Negotiations Inc., a firm that provides automated negotiation advice to young job-seekers as they negotiate their compensation and terms of employment.
The 3D Negotiation approach draws on both academic research in decision analysis, game theory and cognitive and social psychology but also on years of experience advising in complex negotiations and studying great negotiators.