I came across a post titled, “ADR Mediation: A Valuable Tool“, and found it irresistible for two reasons.

Reason 1: It describes an ADR program underway in Houston to provide opportunities for dialogue and improved relationships through mediation between members of the public and employees of the Houston Police Department.

Reason 2: I learned that the chief of police of a major U.S. city blogs. He was the one who posted the article.

Kudos to Houston for the mediation program and the blog.

The Complete Lawyer — an online magazine covering professional development, quality of life, and career issues for attorneys published by Don Hutcheson — has added an ADR column, “The Human Factor“.

Written by me and three smart, savvy women I am honored to call my friends — Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg and Brains on Purpose, Gini Nelson of Engaging Conflicts, and Victoria Pynchon of Settle It Now Negotiation Blog — “The Human Factor” seeks to make ADR relevant to the work of lawyers today. The inspiration for the title of our column comes from pioneering legal reformer Dean Roscoe Pound, whose work presaged the rise of the alternative dispute resolution movement:

A century ago, Dean Roscoe Pound exhorted the legal profession to transform its institutions of justice and adjust its principles “to the human conditions they are to govern,” “putting the human factor in the central place.”

Located in different parts of the U.S., each of us offers a unique way of looking at ADR and its connection to law and justice, in particular what that connection means for the human factor — the individuals whose lives the law affects. In our first column, we introduce ourselves to readers and let them know what to expect from future issues.

Besides “The Human Factor”, there’s plenty more worth reading at the latest issue of The Complete Lawyer, which focuses on the question, “What Do Women Lawyers Really Want?” (I’m one, and I’m still not sure myself.) Find out the answers by visiting The Complete Lawyer now.

The Mediator Magazine, published monthly, delivers news, profiles, columns, and polls dedicated to the art and practice of mediation. Although many of the articles focus on the work of mediators in the U.K., it holds a universal appeal, covering issues of concern to mediators regardless of where in the world they practice.

This month’s issue includes “Global Standards ‘Impossibly Cumbersome’”, a critical look at the efforts of the International Mediation Institute to establish a global mediator competency certification system; “Law-Law better than War-War?”, a discussion of the results of a Mediator Magazine poll that asked readers whether lawyers always make the best mediators; and “Craving Collapse”, which considers whether an economic downturn could be good news for mediators.

The Mediator Magazine is a flash-based site, so I’m not able to link directly to the articles cited here. You’ll need to visit the site yourself to access these and other articles. It’s just too bad this great online resource relies on flash and lacks an RSS feed or an email subscription service so that readers could be notified when new issues are published.

Nonetheless, The Mediator Magazine is worth a look and even a bookmark in your browser.

(With thanks to my friend across the Atlantic, Justin Patten, for alerting me and his other readers to this online publication.)

Mediate.com, the world’s leading online resource for news, information, and bleeding-edge thinking in the field of ADR, has added a new feature.

Mediation Today highlights the importance of mediation, posting stories from around the globe that demonstrate the many ways in which men and women confront and address disputes — and the continuing relevance of the work that the conflict resolution field is engaged in.

Congratulations to Jim Melamed, influential mediation pioneer and co-founder of Mediate.com, who received the 2007 John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution at ACR’s recent 2007 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jim, I can’t think of anyone more deserving of such an honor. Thanks for your contributions to our field — and your support of the ADR blogging community.

I’m pleased to share with you news about a new dispute resolution business I’ve launched with four colleagues. Here’s the official announcement that went out today:

Building on more than 75 combined years of experience in the field, five dispute resolution professionals - Moshe Cohen, Melinda Gehris, Ericka Gray, Bill Logue, and Diane Levin - have formally joined forces as OptionBridge LLC.

OptionBridge is a one-stop, full-service conflict management firm helping companies, organizations, and individuals prevent, manage, and recover from conflict. The conflict management experts at OptionBridge provide a broad range of services, including conflict audit and assessment, neutral investigation, dispute resolution system design, mediation, arbitration, training, consulting, coaching and more, in order to minimize the likelihood of destructive conflict, intervene swiftly and effectively when it does occur, and help restore relationships and build healthier organizations in its aftermath. OptionBridge also provides training, coaching, and consulting services to ADR professionals to help them build their businesses and take their skills to the next level.

From its headquarters in Concord, Hew Hampshire, and satellite offices in Connecticut and Massachusetts OptionBridge delivers services throughout the region, as well as nationally, internationally, and on the web. In addition to working together, the members of OptionBridge continue to maintain their own independent practices.

Please visit OptionBridge on the web at www.optionbridge.com or call us at 800-987-9078.

Today Mediate.com, the world’s premier mediation site, posts its 200th newsletter.

Not only is Mediate.com a web site that I visit frequently to research information on topics in ADR, but it’s also the one that I recommend first to my mediation students and to anyone interested in understanding more about mediation, conflict resolution, and negotiation.

As a blogger I am also deeply grateful that Mediate.com reached out to embrace bloggers at the beginning of this year through the launch of its “Mediate.com Featured Blogs” section. Mediate.com is not only a dependably top-quality resource, it is also a good cyber-neighbor.

Congratulations, Mediate.com. Here’s to 200 more.

Every once in awhile, if we are fortunate, we meet an individual that intuition tells us is destined for great things.

My friend Ashok Panikkar is one of those individuals. Ashok, who left Boston and returned to his native Bangalore two years ago, founded Meta-Culture, Bangalore’s first center for dialogue and conflict transformation. When I interviewed Ashok in July 2005, he described his goals for Meta-Culture:

Meta-Culture is in the process of creating India’s first integrated conflict management group. The vision is to help people develop skills of discourse that are non-adversarial and built around the principles of dialogue rather than debate (even though there are situations where, for instance, Socratic debate can play a very useful part in helping to clarify ideas and challenge the mind). In doing so we can change the climate and culture of discourse so that individuals, organizations and societies can respond to differences with understanding and skill instead of doing so from anger, ignorance, fear, animosity or misplaced righteousness.Our mission is to engage in or promote activities that can help advance this vision. To this end we are engaged in consulting, research and education in the areas of ADR, especially mediation; facilitation; coaching; design of conflict and dispute management systems; and consensus building. Right now our focus is to establish Meta-Culture as a sustainable consulting practice. Very soon we will be setting up a separate division that will service the NGO and governmental sectors.

Unsurprisingly, Meta-Culture today is thriving, keeping Ashok and his staff busy. One of its projects, Meta-Culture Dialogics, a non-profit trust, recently attracted the attention of India media.

The purpose of this project has been to promote dialogue among Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist groups to discuss matters of importance over the course of 10 sessions. These sessions were not designed to get people “holding hands and singing Kumbaya” in the hopes of simply sweeping differences under the rug, as Ashok told me in a recent phone call.

According to Ashok, who was interviewed by The Hindu, “We are not into preaching peace, tolerance and harmony. Instead, we provide a platform for communities to talk about what is bothering them the most about the other community” and to ask each other the hard questions to give issues the healthy airing that honest dialogue can produce.

You can read more about this “Inter-faith dialogue for conflict resolution” as reported in an online edition of The Hindu.

Mediate.com, the world’s most visited conflict resolution web site, has added something new: a list of Featured Blogs. Designated by Mediate.com as “the leading Blogs in the fields of mediation and dispute resolution”, the blogs featured this month are:

Geoff Sharp’s Mediator Blah…Blah… and Mediation vBlog Project
Gini Nelson’s Engaging Conflicts
and this blog, Online Guide to Mediation

Thanks to Jim Melamed, co-founder of Mediate.com, for this distinct honor.

The Boston Globe reports today that the deans of the major law schools in Massachusetts joined some 100 law school deans as signatories to a letter protesting the controversial call by a Pentagon official to boycott law firms representing Guantanamo detainees.

Among the law deans joining the protest is Robert H. Smith, dean of Suffolk University Law School, my alma mater, and a respected mediator.

The text of the letter is as follows:

We, the law deans undersigned below, are appalled by the January 11, 2007 statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles “Cully” Stimson, criticizing law firms for their pro bono representation of suspected terrorist detainees and encouraging corporate executives to force these law firms to choose between their pro bono and paying clients.

As law deans and professors, we find Secretary Stimson’s statement to be contrary to basic tenets of American law. We teach our students that lawyers have a professional obligation to ensure that even the most despised and unpopular individuals and groups receive zealous and effective legal representation. Our American legal tradition has honored lawyers who, despite their personal beliefs, have zealously represented mass murderers, suspected terrorists, and Nazi marchers. At this moment in time, when our courts have endorsed the right of the Guantanamo detainees to be heard in courts of law, it is critical that qualified lawyers provide effective representation to these individuals. By doing so, these lawyers protect not only the rights of the detainees, but also our shared constitutional principles. In a free and democratic society, government officials should not encourage intimidation of or retaliation against lawyers who are fulfilling their pro bono obligations.

We urge the Administration promptly and unequivocally to repudiate Secretary Stimson’s remarks.

Let freedom ring.

Please join me in congratulating London-based solicitor Justin Patten, author of the blog Human Law which explores the nexus among law, technology, and people, on successfully completing his qualifications as mediator.

Welcome to the mediation community, Justin.

A recent press release from Jim Melamed at Mediate.com reminds me of the words from the 1969 Who classic: “We’re Not Gonna Take It“.

It’s mediators who aren’t taking it any more, and what they’re not taking is the failure on the part of world leaders to engage in effective negotiations to defuse once and for all the crises breaking out around the globe.

From the press release:

Senior Mediators Release Statement Urging Effective Negotiation Approaches

There comes a time when even mediators will speak up. Mediators are conflict resolvers who help others to resolve conflict in a voluntary and constructive way. Mediators are normally quiet, priding themselves on their impartiality and neutrality. Now, however, over 75 of the world’s leading mediators have “had enough” according to Mediate.com CEO Jim Melamed, and have signed a statement urging that community, national and global leaders engage effective negotiation and mediation approaches. Here is the text of the Mediators’ Statement developed at the recent Senior Mediators Conference in Keystone, Colorado:

Given that the world is confronted with real and perceived threats from several international arenas we, the undersigned, urge that citizens of our nations insist their elected and appointed government officials immediately engage in honest, direct and unconditional negotiations with all authorities and powers who can resolve these pending crises in ways that are equitable and practical for all concerned without sacrifice to national sovereignty or security. As citizens of the world and as professional negotiators and mediators we urge that proven conflict resolution processes be employed now.

To show your support , visit the web site for the International Coalition of Concerned Mediators at www.concernedmediators.org.

Pass it on.

My alma mater, Suffolk University Law School in Boston, is hosting a group of visiting mediators and mediation program administrators from Bulgaria who are here on a twelve-day study tour under the sponsorship of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

This tour furthers the efforts of USAID’s Commercial Law Reform Program (CLRP) to promote access to and use of mediation to alleviate the strain on Bulgarian’s underfunded and overburdened judiciary (a problem which will have the ring of familiarity to American jurists). CLRP has worked closely with Bulgaria to help it develop its capacity to provide court-connected mediation services. A legal framework supporting mediation is in place, which includes a Mediation Act enacted in December 2004, comprehensive procedural and ethical rules of conduct for mediators, and mediation training standards.

In addition, last year the 110-year-old Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) with the support of USAID opened a Commercial Mediation Center in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, with the goal of promoting the use of mediation as a time- and cost-saving measure.

This study tour was developed by and is under the supervision of Gabrielle Gropman, a mediator with over two decades of experience, who served as the administrator of the Harvard Mediation Program at Harvard Law School for 20 years and who possesses substantial experience as a trainer in both the U.S. and Europe.

Chief trainer is my friend and colleague Ericka Gray, who, among her many achievements, served as the founding Executive Director of the Middlesex Multi-Door Courthouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later as the Executive Director of the Academy of Family Mediators, one of the organizations which later became the Association for Conflict Resolution, before founding her dispute resolution firm DisputEd in 1998.

Participation in this study tour is designed to provide participants with advanced commercial mediation skills and techniques, strategies for the successful administration and financial operation of commercial mediation programs, techniques for training commercial mediators, and the opportunity to establish ties with mediators and mediation service providers here in the U.S.

For two days this week I was privileged to join the study tour as Ericka’s co-trainer teaching these distinguished visitors from Bulgaria advanced commercial mediation skills. Vastly knowledgeable about mediation, deeply committed to its precepts, and rooted squarely in its theory and practice, they had much to teach us as well.

The impression that has remained with me today as I reflect on my time with these extraordinary individuals is the degree to which mediation has become a universal language, an idiom that all of us who are mediators speak and share.

For more information on mediation in Bulgaria, visit the web site for the Mediation Center at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Technorati tags: mediation, Culture and Society

One of the greatest rewards of blogging has been the opportunity to meet alternative dispute resolution practitioners from all over the world. And it’s affirming to learn that no matter what latitude we inhabit, we all seem to share a common tongue–the lingua franca of conflict resolvers everywhere. And the differences of course only keep things interesting.

There is much we can all learn from each other with the internet as facilitator for our conversations together. I am therefore honored and pleased to be able to bring to you today a conversation with a respected leader in the mediation field–Ewan Malcolm, Director of the pioneering Scottish Mediation Network based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ewan guides us through Scotland’s mediation landscape, offering those of us who live elsewhere in the world a unique and in-depth look into the heart and soul of mediation practice there.

Please click here to read my conversation with Ewan. (And with deepest gratitude to Ewan for his generosity and kindness in taking time to share his perspectives and experience with my readers.)

There are those who say that conflict sells newspapers.

So it’s good news for mediators when the Fourth Estate promotes more collaborative means of resolving disputes.

An editorial in today’s Asheville Citizen Times put in a plug for mediation when it urged the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners to work together to resolve an ongoing battle over water management issues. As the editor explained,

“Going to court would mean tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent to resolve the dispute. It would mean a judge, rather than the elected officials whose job it is, deciding how the water distribution system will work. The matter could take months or years to resolve as appeals wind their way through the courts. In the meantime, a water system desperately in need of repairs would continue to deteriorate…Going to court would also undoubtedly strain amicable feelings among local leaders—further damaging regional cooperation for decades.

In other words, resolving the matter in court is clearly not an acceptable alternative. Mediation, however, is. Time is running out. What’s needed is an impartial, well-trained mediator who can help all sides find common ground and reach an outcome that best serves all constituencies.

Given an effective process, people of goodwill can resolve seemingly irreconcilable differences.”

This is one journalist who understands that while conflict may sell newspapers, it does nothing to solve problems. Mediation, on the other hand, certainly can.