The Mediate.com Podcast

Using Caucus in Family Mediations with LaTanya Moss [Ep. 30]

There are different perspectives on the use of caucus in mediation. Maybe you use caucus early and often in your mediations or maybe you prefer joint-session and use caucus more as a tool of last resort.  In this episode, mediator LaTanya Moss chats with Veronica about reasons to use a caucus in family mediations, the logistics of managing the use of caucus with each mediation participant, and how the use of caucus can be beneficial to the mediator! 
About LaTanya:
LaTanya Moss is an experienced mediator.  She has been in the field of dispute resolution since 2004.  She has her own mediation practice called Win-Win Mediation Services. LaTanya mediates issues concerning Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, Domestic Violence, and Family/Youth Occurrences, among other issues.   On the personal side, LaTanya is based in Columbus, OH (USA), a Mother of 2 adult kids, and is now an empty nester and is loving her new chapter of life! 
Win-Win Mediation Services, LLC 
Connect with LaTanya on LinkedIn

Mediating Employment Disputes with Tim Warner [Ep. 29]

Are you curious about mediating employment disputes?  In this episode, Tim Warner--mediator, arbitrator, and attorney--talks about how he made the switch from employment litigator to employment mediator and the unique aspects of employment mediation.  Questions answered during this episode include:
 
What is the most challenging aspect of pivoting from an employment litigator to an employment mediator?
What are the unique aspects of employment mediation and how does employment mediation differ from other types of mediation?
What style of mediation is most effective when mediating employment disputes?
Does online mediation work for employment disputes?
Tim's website
 
About Tim Warner:
 
Tim is a Mediator, an Arbitrator, and an Attorney. His ADR experience includes:
 
• Named a Fellow of the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Committee.
• Serve on the American Arbitration Association panel of Mediators and Arbitrators for commercial, employment and consumer disputes.
• Serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio's Federal ADR Court Panel.
• Serve as a mediator at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• Serve as an Arbitrator for the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
• Serve as a mediator and arbitrator for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
• Serve as an arbitrator and mediator for the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Client Fee Dispute Resolution Committee.
• Served as an arbitrator for a major Cleveland hospital system.
Additionally, Tim has almost thirty (30) years of experience as an employment and business/commercial litigator.

Intercultural Communication and Envisioning a Culture of Peace with Lynn Cole [Ep. 28]

More and more, we are a connected world.  So when it comes to intercultural communication...Is it what you say? Or how you say it? Or both? In this episode, Veronica talks with Lynn Cole--founder and CEO of BRDGES Academy--about intercultural communication and why mediators need this skill. Episode highlights include:
How culture is defined.
A discussion of how culture influences communication and "communication norms" in various cultures.
How mediators can learn cultural aspects before a mediation.
Lynn's prior experience in speaking to the United Nations about mediation as an effective global conflict resolution tool.
And more!
About Lynn Cole:
 
Lynn Cole is President of the Law Offices of Lynn Cole, LLC. She also is the founder and CEO of BRDGES Academy (Building Resolutions for Disputes Globally with E-learning Strategies) where the global focus is on developing core intercultural competencies for conflict resolution practitioners worldwide. Having previously served as both a federal and state trial attorney, Ms. Cole has been a full-time mediator and mediation trainer who is Harvard and Florida trained in mediation. She is mediation certified in Florida (Circuit Civil) and is an interculturally designated and certified neutral for the International Mediation Institute ("IMI") in The Hague. Ms. Cole served as a USAID Mediation/ADR Specialist for over 10 years designing Court-Related Mediation Programs in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Jordan, and Sri Lanka.  For over three years and until March 1, 2014, she served as the President and Chair of the Board of Directors for Mediators Beyond Borders, International and still serves on the board. In May 2011, she spoke to the United Nations about mediation as an effective global conflict resolution tool within global communities. She is a recognized author on the explosive global growth of international mediation. She has lectured and trained extensively internationally in Commercial Mediation; Ethics; Basic and Advanced Mediation; and, Community Mediation, and has taught mediation courses domestically and internationally for students in Universities and Law Schools worldwide, and formerly as an Adjunct Professor at Stetson College of Law. Over the last 17 years, she has conducted in-person mediation training for judges, attorneys and mediators from Canada, Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Greece, Tunisia, Cypress, Kosovo, Turkey, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.She has a full-time, private mediation practice in Florida and is listed with the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Florida and 13th Judicial Circuit as an Arbitrator and Mediator. She successfully has mediated and arbitrated many hundreds of court and pre-litigation cases in labor and employment and all types of contract and commercial cases. She is an invited member of select international organizations as an invited neutral, including the American Arbitration Association, the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, “NADN.”  She formerly has served as an Adjunct Professor and serves on the Faculty of BRDGES Academy teaching Intercultural Communications and Cultural Dimensions.
 
Email: lhc@brdgesacademy.com
BRDGES Academy website: https://brdgesacademy.com/
 

For the Forces of Good With Lucia Kanter St. Amour [Ep. 27]

Did you know that as a mediator you help parties exercise a superpower?  It's the superpower of everyday negotiation! Listen to this episode as Veronica talks with Lucia Kanter St. Amour--attorney, author, mediator, and VP of Board of UN Women San Francisco--about various topics in her #1 rated new release book on Amazon, For the Forces of Good: The Superpower of Everyday Negotiation.  Episode highlights include a discussion of the following:
What is the distinction between impartiality and neutrality?
Can one negotiate with bullies, and if so, how?
How can a mediator handle two different stories from parties in mediation?
What is interoception and why does it matter in mediation?
About Lucia:
 
A member of the Neuroleadership Institute, Lucia has specific training in behavioral science, and how real people act in real conflict situations and decision-making. She is the Founder and Principal of her firm, Pactum Factum, which specializes in negotiation and dispute resolution; and a mediate.com Certified Online Mediator.A Vice President for UN Women, Lucia has also been practicing law since 1998. Ten years of her practice included regular clinical teaching positions in Mediation, and Negotiation at UC Hastings and UC Berkeley Law. She has also been a visiting lecturer at many prominent law and business universities in the U.S. and Europe; and served for a number of years as an annual Competition Judge and Mediator for the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France. Just this year, she launched her own podcast “The Superpower Of Everyday Negotiation.”Her book: For the Forces of Good: The Superpower of Everyday Negotiation (praised by none other than Robert Cialdini and our very own Colin Rule of mediate.com, among many others) is a #1 rated new release book on Amazon and releases to the public on October 1, 2022.
Connect with Lucia via email
Lucia's Book
Lucia's Podcast
Lucia's previous guest appearance on the Mediate.com Podcast

Procedural Justice and Data Collection in Court-Connected Mediation with Nancy Welsh [Ep. 26]

As a mediator, you've probably come across the phrase "access to justice" when reading about or listening to discussions of mediation, but are you also familiar with the "procedural justice" aspect of mediation? And for the court-connected mediation programs that you mediate for...Do those programs collect data? In this episode, Veronica talks with Nancy Welsh--the Frank W. Elliott, Jr. University Professor, Professor of Law and Director of the Dispute Resolution Program at Texas A&M University School of Law--about both procedural justice and data collection in court-connected mediation.  Questions answered during the episode include:
What is procedural justice when it comes to mediation?
What is the connection between procedural fairness and self-determination?
What can mediators do to help parties share their voice in mediation?
How can ODR help support procedural justice in mediation?
Why is data collection important for court-connected ADR and what data should be collected?
Links to resources mentioned in the show:
 
Nancy's Faculty Profile Page
 
Aggie Dispute Resolution Program Page
 
Sampling of Nancy's Articles:
 
Do You Believe in Magic?: Self-Determination and Procedural Justice Meet Inequality in Court-Connected Mediation 
 
But Is It Good: The Need to Measure, Assess, and Report on Court-Connected ADR
 
Making Deals in Court-Connected Mediation: What's Justice Got to Do with It?
 
Bringing Transparency and Accountability (with a Dash of Competition) to Court-Connected Dispute Resolution
 
About Nancy Welsh:
 
Nancy A. Welsh is the Frank W. Elliott, Jr. University Professor, Professor of Law and Director of the Dispute Resolution Program at Texas A&M University School of Law. In 2016-2017, she was Chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. 
 
Professor Welsh is a leading scholar and teacher of dispute resolution and procedural law. She examines negotiation, mediation, arbitration, judicial settlement, and dispute resolution in U.S. and international contexts, focusing on self-determination, procedural justice, due process, and institutionalization dynamics. Professor Welsh has written more than 60 articles and chapters that have appeared in law reviews, professional publications and books and is co-author of DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND LAWYERS, 5TH ED.  Additionally, she is co-editor with Howard Gadlin of EVOLUTION OF A FIELD: PERSONAL HISTORIES IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION. In 2006, she conducted research in the Netherlands as a Fulbright Scholar and taught at Tilburg University. 
In 2016, she was named a Visiting Scholar of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University Bloomington.
She has advised state legislatures and federal and state agencies and courts regarding the institutionalization of dispute resolution, conducted empirical research, convened roundtables and symposia on various dispute resolution topics, and served as a mediator, facilitator and arbitrator. 
 
Professor Welsh presents nationally and internationally, conducts training, and teaches Texas A&M’s unique required course for 1Ls – ADR Survey - as well as Civil Procedure, Mediation, and Dispute System Design Seminar.

Reducing the Environmental Impact of Your Mediations with Ian Macduff [Ep. 25]

Have you ever considered how mediator practices impact the environment? In this episode, Veronica talks with Ian Macduff--mediator and host of the ICODR podcast--about an initiative he is part of--the Mediators Green Pledge. Questions answered during this episode include:
What is the Mediators Green Pledge?
What are steps that mediators can take to be more environmentally friendly?
How can a mediator balance the Mediators Green Pledge with party self-determination regarding the mediation process?
The Mediators Green Pledge website
The ICODR podcast, Hosted by Ian Macduff
 
About Ian Macduff:
 
Ian has recently been elected to join the Board of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution. He was, until February 2022, Director of the Centre for ICT Law at Auckland Law School. Prior to that, he was Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Dispute Resolution Initiative at Singapore Management University; and for a number of years, a Faculty member at the Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Law. He has been a practising mediator for nearly 40 years, in commercial, environmental, policy, intercultural, family, online mediation and other fields. He was a member of the Independent Standards Commission of the International Mediation Institute; and a member of the IMI’s Task Force on Intercultural Mediation accreditation, a member of the Global Organising Committee of the Global Pound Conference series, and a Fellow of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution [http://odr.info/fellows/]. He is co-editor of Ethnic Conflict and Secessionism in South and South East Asia (Sage, 2003); contributing author of Dispute Resolution in New Zealand (OUP 1999), and of Guidelines for Family Mediation (Butterworths, 1995) and contributing author to An Asian Perspective on Mediation. He is editor of Essays on Mediation: Dealing with Disputes in the 21st Century, (Kluwer 2016).
 

Negotiation Ethics, International Dispute Resolution, and Online Mediation with Carrie Menkel-Meadow [Ep. 24]

Mediators, be sure to take notes on this episode as Veronica talks to one of the founders of the modern legal dispute resolution field, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, about negotiation ethics, international dispute resolution, and online mediation.   Carrie is a Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and A.B. Chettle Jr. Professor of Law, Dispute Resolution and Civil Procedure Emerita at Georgetown University Law Center.  Episode highlights include:
What it means to approach mediation as a "sensibility"
The importance of negotiation ethics for mediators, including discussion of a hypothetical that many mediators have probably faced 'in the mediation room'
What a "competent" mediator looks like
Examples of what mediation is/is not across the World
Online mediation--Where it works and what the challenges are
 
Carrie's Faculty Profile Page

Providing Mediation as an Alternative Response to Low Emergent 911 Calls—The Mediation Response Unit at the Dayton Mediation Center [Ep. 23]

In this episode, Veronica talks to Raven Cruz Loaiza, the Mediation Response Coordinator for the newly developed Mediation Response Unit (MRU) at the Dayton Mediation Center located in Dayton, Ohio.  Listen to this episode to learn about how this innovative program provides mediation in order to work on improving community police relations.
 
About the Dayton Mediation Response Unit:
 
"We are a City of Dayton program under the umbrella of the Dayton Mediation Center and are an alternative response team that responds to low emergent 911 calls within the City of Dayton. Our program was formulated after the police reform talks began in 2020 and the working groups identified recommendations for the community of Dayton. We are a team of five trained responders with a wealth of experience and certification in areas such as crisis response, de-escalation, conflict resolution and community development and relationship building."
 
Dayton Mediation Response Unit Website
 
About Raven Cruz Loaiza:
 
Raven is the Mediation Response Coordinator for the newly developed Mediation Response Unit (MRU) at the Dayton Mediation Center located in Dayton, Ohio. The MRU derived from the City of Dayton’s police reform initiatives and is in place to provide the community of Dayton with on scene alternate response options for non-violent incidences that arise. Raven has two decades of experience working in law enforcement, children’s services, juvenile probation and victim services. Raven is a Licensed Social Worker who holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Louisville as well as a Bachelor Degree in Social Work and a Bachelor in Criminal Justice from Wright State University. Raven is also a Registered Advocate in the State of Ohio.

An Introduction to the Ombuds Role for Mediators with Chuck Doran [Ep. 22]

As a mediator, are you curious about other fields that use conflict resolution skills? Are you looking for a field that combines a systemic approach with conflict resolution skills? In this episode, Chuck Doran--experienced mediator, ombuds and Executive Director of MWI--provides an introduction to the ombuds role.  Questions answered in this episode include:
What is an ombuds?
What are the different types of ombuds?
What is the difference between a mediator and an ombuds?
How can one get into the ombuds field?
Links mentioned in the show:
 
International Ombuds Association FAQ Section
Chuck's article: Mediator as Ombuds
A Practical Guide to Organizational Ombuds: How They Help People and Organizations by Chuck Howard
MWI Website
Connect with Chuck Doran on LinkedIn
The LinkedIn Group – Outsourced Ombuds Network can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14059472/
The Ombuds Blog
 
About Chuck:
Chuck Doran is an experienced mediator and ombuds specializing in the resolution of employment, franchise and other commercial disputes. A mediator since 1992, he is a member of the CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and has provided mediation and other ADR services to a variety of clients including AT&T, Bose, BMW of North America, Coca-Cola, CVS Health, General Motors, Oxfam America, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), and the USPS REDRESS I and REDRESS II Mediation Panels. Chuck is a Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner (CO-OP) and a member of the International Ombudsman Association who completed ombuds training with the IOA in 1995. In 1993, Chuck completed a Specialization in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. In 1994, Chuck founded MWI, a nationally recognized dispute resolution service and training organization based in Boston, MA that provides individual and corporate clients with mediation services, negotiation consulting and training, and mediation training. Chuck served as a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and was Chair of the Qualifications Subcommittee. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Advisory Group and is a past president of the Association for Conflict Resolution, New England Chapter. He is also a Distinguished Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators (IAM) and a past president of IAM's Board of Governors.

How To Leverage Design Principles To Elevate Your Mediation Practice with Darin Thompson [Ep. 21]

Have you ever thought about applying design principles to the delivery of your mediation services? In this episode, Veronica talks with guest Darin Thompson all about various design principles and how they can be applied to dispute resolution processes.  Darin is Legal Counsel with the Ministry of Attorney General in British Columbia, Canada, and he has helped to initiate several justice system innovation projects including the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal.  Episode highlights include:
 
A discussion of "end-to-end" design as it relates to dispute resolution
Examples of good uses of technology in dispute resolution
A discussion of "user-experience design"
How mediators can begin incorporating design thinking skills
 
Links mentioned in the show:
 
Darin's website: http://darinthompson.ca/
Civil Resolution Tribunal blog: https://civilresolutionbc.ca/blog/